Redux
by The Maudlin Muse
Summary: House is always causing trouble. Most of the time, he drags Wilson along for the ride whether or not he is a voluntery passenger. But this time he really has outdone himself! Please feed the Author, reviews are non fattening and better than Vicodin
1. Careful what you wish for

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

A/N: This takes place mid season 5 when Wilson and House's friendship is already on the mend, ignoring Kutner's death and Cuddy's adoption so sometime after `Birthmarks' and before `Joy to the world'.

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Redux

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Chapter one- Careful what you wish for

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"HOUSE!! HOUSE!!" Cuddy yelled marching over, surprisingly quickly given the height of her heels, to him, smoke nearly coming out of her ears.

House stopped and blinked large blue eyes at her staring right at her breasts as per usual, till he felt a vice like grip on his ear and a, none to gentle yank of said ear.

"Good God Women! That does not come off!" He said loudly with false bravado trying desperately not to flinch. He did in fact flinch though when she yanked again.

Wilson, who was sitting on the floor, where he had landed when Cuddy came barreling into the room sending him stumbling backwards in his hast to get out of her way, stared up at them with wide innocent brown eyes, hoping, as he so often did when it came to House and feeling Cuddy's wrath, that he wasn't next.

"Give it to me!" She demanded holding her left hand out to him his ear still pinched tightly in her right.

"Help me Wilson help me! The Cuddy bitch from hell has got me in her pointy nailed big boobed clutches!" House cried in Wilson's direction flailing in fruitless attempt to free his ear from Cuddy's vice like grip.

Wilson had just gotten up on his knees in order to stand when he was pinned with an icy administrative glare causing him to plop right back onto his bottom. He gave House a helpless shrug and apologetic smile.

It was Cuddy's `don't you dare' glare and one that, in this particular situation, Wilson simply wasn't able to bring himself to disobey.

Lisa snapped her finger when House still hadn't handed forth what she had demanded.

House tried to wriggle away so Lisa pinched his ear harder, pulling him close she reached into the pocket of his jeans to retrieve the lighter. She shook her head and sighed.

How had she gotten into this mess…?

_**House walked into the lab and stood before Wilson twirling his cane and peering at him with impossibly wide blue eyes, all innocent and puppy like… this of course set Wilson's trouble senses tingling.**_

"_**Wilson I'm Hungry lets go get lunch!" he demanded pulling Wilson by his arm nearly making him drop the slide he had been preparing. **_

"_**House, I'm busy, go buy your own lunch for a change." Wilson brushed him off shrugging his arm out of House's grip.**_

"_**Come on Wilson take a break. You've been working on this stuff nonstop for weeks." House complained making sure to make his voice as grading as a whining toddler, he was surprisingly good at that. **_

"_**Listen, House, this is a big deal. You know it's a big deal. It could mean huge publicity for the hospital and huge publicity for the hospital means more donations for the hospital, more donations for the hospital means a happy Cuddy and happy Cuddy means happy us." Wilson repeated the same speech he had given to House countless times the past few weeks when he had come by to pester him for his attention.**_

"_**Like you needed more little bald kids." House grumbled pouting and banging his cane against the floor impatiently.**_

_**More little bald kids meaning the 30 or so children that had come to PPTH from around the world, these children of course were not afflicted with Cancer as the rest of James Wilsons patients were, instead they had a rare, 1 in 8 million births, disease. **_

_**Progeria was a rare disease that caused the children's cells to age much faster than normal, at a rate of about 10-1. By the time these children turned 7 they had the bodies, respiratory system and heart of a 70 year old, most dying before the age 13 of stroke or heart attack. **_

_**It had been found out that, FTI's, originally developed for cancer were capable of reversing the nuclear abnormalities in the cells of these children. This being the case, experimental treatments had started to be conducted. PPTH still had a rather large experimental department left behind in Vogler's wake thus it had taken on the project.**_

_**Wilson, being a prestigious Oncologist, well versed in FTI's had been called in for some help in trying to alter the FTI's into something that could someday be a cure for the horrid, debilitating disease. He was no scientist but there was plenty he could do in the lab not to mention a ludicrous amount of consulting and paper work. More than enough to keep him insanely busy and out of commission to play with House for the last few weeks on top of what looked like even more weeks to come. **_

_**With so few children actually living with the disease research for it was few and far between, there was no money to be made in curing a disease that only affected about 45 people worldwide at any given time. However, hospital administration had been offered a large amount of money by a pharmaceutical company to do the research. The company's hope was that if they found a treatment that proved to be successful in treating these children's accelerated aging that it would also be a treatment that could help reverse natural aging and THAT had huge profit margins written all over it!**_

"_**House, please, just… get Chase to buy you lunch." Wilson said in exasperation.**_

"_**He doesn't let me get an extra pudding," House whined "or steal his fries when I finish mine." He added as if that last bit of information about Chase's egregious lunch practices would be all it took to bring about a change in Wilson's mind… **_

_**It didn't which in turn caused House to pout and sulk… **_

_**A pouting, sulking House was a dangerous House and really Wilson ought to have known that by now. **_

_**Looking back on it later Wilson would wish he had taken the 45 minutes away from his work to feed House. But then again, hind sight was always 20/20.**_

"_**Then buy your own lunch and you can have as many fries and puddings as you want." Wilson nearly growled. He was quickly losing patients with his ever increasingly juvenile friend.**_

_**House didn't say anything and for a moment Wilson was actually stupid enough to think he had won this round. **_

_**Silly Wilson and his wishful thinking!**_

_**He turned back to the slide he had been preparing, carefully sliding the little glass square over the sample of cells, lowering it down slowly at a diagonal to prevent trapping any air bubbles between it and the glass of the slide. He then placed the side under the microscope, peering into it to take a look.**_

_**He really should have known better then to take his eyes off House. He knew from experience that the only thing more dangerous than a pouting, sulking House was a pouting, sulking and quiet House. But he was busy and often times when he got that absorbed in his work he forgot other important things such as what he had pain stakingly learned in Gregory House 101. **_

_**House grinned mischievously… Fine if Wilson didn't want to buy him lunch, AGAIN, then the least he could do was make sure he'd damn well wish he had… **_

_**Perusing the different equipment laid out in the lab, House stopped at the table directly behind Wilson where there resided a collection of test tubes with various samples neatly organized yet unlabeled, at least not labeled in a manor House could decode.**_

_**House wondered how much time it would set Wilson back if he mixed these two vials together… really they should be labeled legibly, at least so he would know he wasn't mixing anything that would produce a caustic reaction… then again he was the same man that stuck a knife in a wall socket so really, what did he care? **_

_**He shrugged, it would probably be way more cool and piss Wilson off way more if there was some sort of bad reaction between the two… Bonus!**_

_**Throwing caution to the wind… not that House possessed an abundance of caution to throw, he poured the contents of the slightly off color clearish yellowish test tube into another test tube with completely clear liquid with some sort of congealed matter separated at the bottom that, even being a doctor, House couldn't identify.**_

_**He was immeasurably disappointed when, at first nothing at all happened.**_

_**It was totally anti climatic and…**_

_**The test tube started to bubble and fizz, becoming uncomfortably hot in his hand causing him to drop it on the floor right between him and Wilson. The kinetic energy of the fall and subsequent impact into the ground seemed to be all the energy needed to produce a rather spectacular explosion.**_

_**Wilson hadn't had any time to react. The time between hearing the shattering of glass directly behind him and subsequent explosion had barely been long enough for him to spin around and catch the horrified look on House's face.**_

_**Later they would find out that they had been very lucky, the explosion had been loud and rather bright but not powerful, an all around spectacular show without any real kick. It had just enough force to knock the men onto their asses. The real damage to the two inhabitants of the room had come from the inhalation of the gas fumes given off by the chemical mixture which the explosion had sent into the air in the form of a large green cloud which had engulfed them both.**_

_**Emergency detectors had gone off alerting the proper people to the accident and the fail safe in the room had kicked in sealing the air locked doors tight keeping the possible bio hazard contained till personnel with hazmat suits came to assess the situation, one of those people being Dr. Lisa Cuddy herself.**_

_**When she got there emergency personnel were already making their way through the outer locked chamber in their brightly colored self contained suits one of which she herself was also wearing. **_

_**She quickly made her way over to her two department heads, still flat on their asses on the ground both holding their heads. **_

"_**What the hell happened here?" She demanded tersely.**_

"_**Explain… later" House panted out, it was apparent he was barely holding on to consciousness, though whether it was from head trauma or the inhalation of whatever gas the mixture had produced, which still hung somewhat thick in the air, Cuddy wouldn't know until she examined him.**_

_**Turning to Wilson she realized she was just as likely to get an answer from him right now as she had been from House, he too seemed to be barely hanging on to the waking world. **_

_**Whatever they had done this time, they had really done it!**_

_**Getting both men into their own hazmat suits had proved to be a challenge in and of itself but there was no way she would take a chance that they could be contagious. It was simply easier to contain them in the suits so if they were they could not infect anyone else on their way to the quarantine room where she could examine them both. **_

_**With the help of two of her larger collogues Lisa had managed to maneuver them into the intricate suits then the same two men had half carried half dragged the injured doctors out of the room, into the outer room where they were sanitized while the airlock re-engaged before they were let out into the hallway where they were then dragged to a quarantine room which had a similar outer chamber and air lock system. **_

_**Once Both men were situated in the quarantine room, Cuddy and Cameron, who had donned her own bio suit and joined Cuddy upon her request for help, stripped the two recalcitrant doctors of both hazmat suit and clothing which were disposed of in sealed bio hazard bins. **_

_**Wilson would have been embarrassed about being naked and House would have made some sexual innuendo about Cuddy finely getting him out of his pants before suggesting she take off her shirt so he could play with her fun bags, but both men were too out of it to do much more then blink. **_

_**Giving both men a thorough examination, Cuddy examining House, Cameron taking on Wilson, the women then dressed them in clean green scrubs. They had both started to nod off and since neither one seemed to have head trauma, or trauma to any part of their body for that matter (save their bottoms which were both looking as if they would soon sport nice bruises from contact with the cement floor of the lab), Cameron and Cuddy were forced to assume that whatever was effecting them was due to the gas and thus tucked them in and left them alone to sleep it off.**_

_**Cameron sat herself in a chair in between both beds and Cuddy, though she had wanted to stay, left to wrap up things with the emergency bio hazard crew. **_

_**Still in her bio suit, Cameron had settled in for the long hole, she didn't want to leave them alone and she didn't know when Cuddy would be able to get back. **_

_**She had, had a hard time finding a comfortable way to sit in the big bulky suit, but eventually she was able to settle down in a decent position and had actually drifted off for a bit only to be woken up by Cuddy's surprised scream. **_

_**Dr. Cuddy had re-entered the quarantine room sans bio hazard suit, she had been stopping by to check on her two injured doctors and to tell Cameron that there was no contagion. The effect on both House and Wilson had been caused by direct exposure to the gas and had been determined based on analysis of the remaining liquid on the floor and gas still present in the air that it could not be spread from person to person. **_

_**She had just taken care of her busyness with the bio hazard crew and made sure the lab was sectioned off while the air filters worked on clearing out the gas. The room would be checked once a week till the air proved completely clear of all remnants of contamination.**_

_**They had managed to salvage most of the research to be moved to another lab but progress would be set back weeks. She wasn't looking forward to explaining that to the pharmaceutical company that was backing the research.**_

_**All that, however, was pushed out of her mind when she entered the quarantine room and found in the beds, instead of the two grown doctors she had left, two small still sleeping, boys that bore a frighteningly striking resemblance to the men whom had once resided there…**_

Oh yeah… that's right…

Cuddy shook her head to clear the memory and fixed House with an angry glare. Pulling him by the ear she led him over to the corner and deposited him there… House spent a lot of time in the corner…

"Stay!" She ordered in a voice House new better, at this point, then to argue with.

She then went to her desk and cleared off the burned up and charred tampons, sweeping them into the garbage bin before looking in her purse hoping House hadn't burned them all. She sighed in relief and sunk down into her desk chair her purse in her lap, her remaining two tampons clutched in her hand.

Placing them back in her purse and her purse into her bottom draw which she then locked, she crooked a finger at Wilson and beckoned him over.

Wilson scampered to his feet and scurried over. "I didn't help him!" he said in a rush as he approached.

"James…" She said warningly causing the little boy to drop his gaze. She knew these two too well to buy what he was selling.

"M-Maybe I burned one…" he whispered staring at his feet which he was scuffing against the floor. It was really odd hearing her call him 'James' he was just usually always 'Wilson' but she had explained it just wouldn't sound right for them to be calling two children by their last names, had to keep up appearances in the hospital and all, and thus they had all tried to adopt the use of their first, save for when House was doing something stupid, Cuddy usually slipped back into bellowing 'HOUSE' then.

"Mhmm…." Cuddy nodded pointing to the corner opposite House.

Wilson pouted at her and dragged his feet over, planting his nose in the corner… He found, as far as Cuddy's punishments went, corner time was much worse than clinic duty.

She couldn't help a small smile as she looked at the two little trouble makers inhabiting her office corners. She still couldn't believe this had happened.

She had always wanted to be a mother and was crushed when time and time again the in vitro implants had failed to work… She glanced at House's back. Even with his back to her she could see the stubbornness in his features… Well she always wanted to be a mom... She really should be careful what she wishes for!

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A/N: FC (Sparx) dared me to de age House and Wilson and sick them on Cuddy and the ducklings. I said I would if she would and so a challenge was born. It was really tricky to come up with a way to get them small that wouldn't be a complete twist of reality and totally out of the realm of House MD, it's a little sci-fi but I think I made it really plausible (in a fiction sort of way) … That was always so much easier in Harry Potter… magic makes fan fiction writing so much easier! LOL! But hey I think I found a justifiable way to de age them and I think, in the process I came up with a really cool universe! Everyone feel free to play in it!

I invite you all in to this challenge, it's hard but really a lot of fun!


	2. Menace MD

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

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Redux

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Chapter Two- Menace MD

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When Lisa had first seen the two boys in the beds she had thought her eyes were playing tricks, or that her doctors were but then she realized not even Greg House would leave a quarantine room without being cleared first if only because he wouldn't want to help deal with an epidemic.

They had done all sorts of tests on the boys starting with DNA which confirmed that they were indeed James Wilson and Gregory House.

X-Rays, cat scans a battery of blood and other tests found that House was about 8 and Wilson about 6 and that both seemed to possess all of their adult memories though it seemed from the scan of their brains, that even those were a bit regressed.

It seemed, based on further analysis of the samples taken from the lab, that House had accidently stumbled upon a mixture of chemicals that worked… a little too well. And they thought the reason their brains had been affected at all was because it had been inhaled as a gas instead of used as a cream or pill, they weren't sure but it bore more looking into.

As such, even though the regression in their brains didn't seem to affect their memories, it did seem to affect their emotions and behavior, not that House had been all that mature to begin with, so really Lisa wasn't so sure there was much change there. She did however; see a noticeable behavior change in Wilson.

There were also a few anomalies that no one was really sure of, such as the fact that the x-rays that had allowed them to ascertain the boys' ages, had show a complete regression in bone structure including teeth. They weren't sure if the regression in their body had fooled it and caused it to produce a second set of adult teeth or teeth that had fallen out decades earlier had magically re appeared in their mouths. They supposed, though the latter was quite improbable, well imposable really, that they might not ever know the real answer.

None of the scientists working on the drug could think of a way to reverse the damage and in the end, they weren't sure, but they hoped that like the results of so many products made to reverse ageing effects, that this too would be only temporary.

The entire thing had gone down about a week prior and the boys had still not been allowed to leave the hospital, though about four days after the incident they had been allowed out of bed and out of their room to wonder around as long as they were accompanied by Cuddy, Cameron, Chase, Thirteen or Forman.

Kutner had proven himself to be an ineffective baby sitter. He was nothing but a big kid himself and much more likely to engage in whatever mischief the boys were getting up too then to stop it, as was evident when he helped them set the mice in the Cancer lab free. And Taub had out and out refused to help. He didn't like House as an adult and he refused to watch him as a child.

Really Cuddy had to admit that she didn't blame them for going a bit stir crazy, being a bit bored, but that was no excuse to go setting her tampons on fire, honestly she had only left them alone in her office for 5 minutes.

Lisa let them stand there for another 10 minutes before calling them out.

House, as always looked unfazed by the punishment but Wilson's bottom lip was trembling, he really didn't like getting into trouble. Despite that he always let House talk him into naughtiness.

"Oh James, come here." Cuddy said opening her arms to him, she couldn't resist that 'I'm about the burst into tears' look.

Now the first time Cuddy had done this, on the first day they had been allowed out of their room when they had gotten caught setting the mice free and spent the subsequent 15 minutes in the corner (Kutner having been sent to do an extra hour in the clinic), Wilson had hesitated, his adult memories warring with his childlike need for the comfort till he had eventually given in and accepted the hug.

It had made him feel much better even though House had called him a girl (and thus spent another 15 minutes in the corner while Wilson snuggled in Lisa's lap. Cuddy may have known House well but apparently not well enough to realize it was simply his passive aggressive way of saying 'hey what about me?' though he may not have willingly taken offered comfort at this point, it would still have been nice to know it was there!) So this time Wilson didn't hesitate, instead he ran over and quickly leaned into the opened arms, House biting his bottom lip against the smart ass comments that came bubbling to the surface. He didn't want more corner time!

Lisa lifted him up and placed him in her lap.

"It's okay James." She assured, rubbing his back "But you have really got to stop letting Greg talk you into trouble, you are supposed to be the reasonable one, remember?" She asked with a smile, tapping the end of his nose with her index finger.

"`m sorry." He said contritely adopting a 'butter won't melt in my mouth' look.

"Yes, I know, I forgive you… both." She said patting Wilson's back.

"However, " she started turning to House now as she spoke, addressing him "Greg, when Forman comes to pick you up for lunch I will let him know to make a detour to the gift shop where _**you**_ will go in and buy me a new box of tampons." She informed him with an evil smile, satisfied that she had come up with a suitable punishment.

"Menstruation makes you crazier than I thought!" He exclaimed, blue eyes wide and disbelieving. "That is cruel and unusual punishment!" He complained.

"You will do it or you will spend the rest of the day grounded to your hospital room." She warned him "And if you don't watch that mouth of yours you can wait for Forman in the corner." She added in for good measure.

He knew she wasn't bluffing so he stomped over to the couch; one good thing about this mess was it had restored his leg, and tossed himself down on it, arms crossed over his chest a pout planted firmly on his face.

He hated being treated like a child! He was still him, all be it in a tinier package, but him none the less. It just wasn't fair and it made him want to stomp his feet and scream. He hated how much things had changed. Cuddy wouldn't let them work despite all of House's protests that he was still capable of doing his job!

The worst though, was the emotions, things House had worked years and years on suppressing, coming back. Like the need for love and assurance, to be wanted and taken care of, things he had beaten out of him, came rushing back along with all the other childish insecurities and needs. He didn't like being this vulnerable and he spent even more time and energy now pretending that he wasn't.

He sunk down into the couch cushion and glared over at Wilson and Cuddy unwilling to admit the emotion he was feeling was something closely resembling, or at least a distant cousin to jealousy. He didn't want or need to be snuggled like some girly baby! He wasn't a wussy like Wilson.

He didn't need love and reassurance after punishment, didn't need to be told he was forgiven, Lord knows he never got any of those things from his father and his father had done far worse than corner time!

He found that, as far as Cuddy's punishments went, corner time was far better than clinic duty!

He bit his lip to keep quiet. Though not one to usually hold his tongue, and most people generally thought he was incapable of it, the truth was there was a great deal that he did, in fact, hold in. However, now since being regressed he was finding it harder to hold the things he normally wouldn't say, back.

As it turns out they didn't have to wait very long for Forman to come and get them and soon they are leaving Cuddy in her office with a much needed break to catch up on some paper work and make some important calls.

A brief stop at gift shop, where Forman had to bodily drag House in and Shove the box of tampons into his hand to bring up to the cashier to pay for, then the cafeteria to buy food and soon they are sitting across the table from each other in the diagnostic conference room with a plate of fries and hamburger each, House and Wilson sat eating their lunch while Forman sat at the head of the table as per usual, his face hidden behind a news paper.

Despite the large pile of French fries on his own plate, House reached over, across the table and grabbed a fry from Wilson's.

"NOO!!" Wilson cried smacking House's hand in an uncharacteristic bout of anger over one of House's normal behaviors. Even since they had been turned into kids again Wilson hadn't seem to mind House's predilection for enjoying the food off of his plate instead of the food on his own so the reaction was quite odd.

House proceeded to ignore the indignant yelps from his little friend and popped the fry into his mouth looking at Wilson's plate curiously the wheels turning in his head.

While House's own burger was nearly gone Wilson had yet to touch his but had instead been solely eating his fries and very slowly at that.

House got the look in his eyes he so often got when trying to solve one of his cases. Determined to experiment he reached over he grabbed another one of Wilson's fries and popped it in his mouth.

"Don't take my fries!!!" Wilson whined "Formannnnn!! He is taking my friesss!" he tattled.

House raised an eyebrow and added the piece to the puzzle.

It seemed awful uncharacteristic for Wilson to tattle, even if he was nothing but a little boy. James was the classic enabler, he NEVER tattled on House for anything.

Forman who had been reading his news paper and trying to ignore the fact that he was babysitting two of the hospitals department heads, one of which was his boss, bent the paper down to peer over it and chide House.

"Greg…" Man that was weird to say, but Cuddy had insisted… "Stop stealing James' fries, you have your own."

House let out a grunt of acknowledgment never tearing his eyes off of Wilson, who had gone back to eating his fries. House watched as he placed the fries into his mouth at the side, directly onto his maulers. He watched as the pile of fries got smaller and smaller yet the burger had yet to be touched. Then he watched the fries disappear completely and still the burger remaining whole.

He stared at the younger boy intently but Wilson made no move to grab at his burger. House picked up on the subtle action of Wilson's tongue playing over his front teeth…

"Hey Wilson, commere." House said sliding his chair out from under the table, turning it slightly sideways.

"Nuh uh House. Why?" He asked suspiciously.

"Just commere, ya big baby." House demanded.

Wilson pouted at being called a big baby, he simply didn't trust House's motives, but wanting to prove House wrong, he slid his chair out and hopped off, stomping over to stand in front of Him.

As soon as Wilson was standing in front of him he reached out with his left hand and pinched him as hard as he could in his soft little belly. When Wilson opened his mouth to scream House quickly shoved his right hand in both muffling the scream and grabbing his right front tooth giving it a yank.

Just as House had suspected, the tooth was loose and came out when he gave a second hard yank. He held the freed tooth up in victory while Wilson let out an ear piercing scream followed by heart breaking sobs as blood filled his mouth.

It all happened so fast that Forman, who had been doing his best to pretend to be someplace else, barely had time to toss the paper down and jump up in time to see House holding up the tooth let alone to be able to stop the entire thing from happening. He cursed himself for not having been paying attention. He was used to House's antics but he had no idea how to deal with a sobbing miniature Wilson!!

House just grinned very pleased with himself as he went over his mental white board. He had known he was right! The diagnosis really had been simple and he should have fired Forman for not picking up on it. With the symptoms being refusal to bite into things, moodiness at having easily eatable food snatched, uncharacteristic whining, tongue probing at front teeth, being 6 years old, the diagnosis was so clearly a loose tooth, treatment… yanking said loose tooth. So, despite Wilson's screaming and sobbing there was no way he could be in trouble, he had done nothing wrong, just his job!

Cameron, who had been in House's office answering his e-mails (someone had to do it and she was the only one willing even if she was no longer technically on his team though she really hated the fact that she had to tell all the people that needed his help so badly, no, though she guessed at least now it had the benefit of being true)… came running into the conference room when she heard the scream. She went right over to Wilson who was sobbing piteously and knelt down beside him pulling him to her and hushing him gently.

Seeing the problem she reached over and grabbed a napkin off the table and, folding it into a thick little square, wedged it into the little space were the tooth had once been to stop the bleeding.

Seeing that Cameron pretty much had this under control and not wanting to get in the middle of a House Wilson fight, even if they were only children now, Forman sat back down and resumed reading his paper. It was better if he stayed out of the way and let Cameron deal with this. She was better at it anyway!

Wilson, who was still sniffling and crying, allowed Cameron to shove the folded napkin into his mouth. Letting out some hiccups one little fist came up to rub at his eyes the other clung to Cameron's shirt tightly. Not only had it scared Wilson to have House yank his tooth, it had shocked him as he wasn't expecting it, but it had hurt and having someone put their hands in your mouth was a bit of an invasion of space simply adding to the misery and trauma of the experience, the blood had not helped either.

Alison, lifting Wilson up to balance on her hip, she lead him back over to the desk. Sitting down in the chair she settled the child on her lap looking over to give House an exasperated look. She always she found it hard to be more then slightly annoyed with him. She wonders why she could never get mad at the brat. Even as an adult she could never seem too, though she had managed a few telling offs but that wasn't till after she had stopped working for him.

Snuggling the whimpering child in her lap she ponders what to do. She could try and put House in the corner but that hadn't worked the last time she tried and though, when Cuddy had found out that not only had House done something to warrant corner time but that he had defied the person looking after him, he had spent the rest of the afternoon in his room, which had not made the little boy happy, Cameron didn't really think that meant he would listen any better at the moment. Especially since he was now standing up peering at the door as if plotting an escape.

She could whap Forman and insist he do something. House, for some reason had been much more inclined to listen to the neurologist (though not too much more inclined), Alison wondered if House was intimidated by the man or something.

She supposed he was a bit more threatening then she was. The thing with that was he also listened to thirteen but not so much Chase so she was fairly certain it wasn't a gender thing especially given the fact that, when in a mood and not listening to anyone else he always listened to Cuddy. Again she supposed if she really wanted to analyze it that it made sense.

During their tenure with House, her and Chase were much more easily walked all over by him then Forman had ever been and Thirteen never had a problem standing up to adult House, talking him on or dealing with his crap, in that she didn't take crap from him. She supposed it made sense that now as a child he would have more respect for, and therefore, listen better to them.

She sighed. The truth was the only person that had any real effect on House's behavior was Cuddy. She was the ultimate authority figure in his eyes and the only one he truly worried about punishment from, even as an adult. Everyone knew that.

House may have poked fun at her wardrobe and done things he ought not, behind her back but when it really came down to it he knew where is bread was buttered and at the end of the day he did get the right forms signed, get her permission to do risky tests and do his punishment clinic hours when he had been naughty and they had been assigned. So it was unsurprising that the same held true now that he was a child, of course now it was things like setting tampons on fire and corner time instead of blowing up MRI machines and clinic duty.

Mind made up, Alison gave a sad sigh and picked up the phone with her hand that wasn't rubbing circles in Wilsons still heaving back. Dialing the number and placing the phone in the crook of her neck holding it to her ear with her shoulder, she peered at House.

"Greg, sit down in your chair and wait for Dr. Cuddy." She ordered him firmly as she listened to the phone ring, pulling Wilson closer when he gave another hiccup. He snuggled into her still whimpering and sniffling.

House plopped himself down on the floor in spite of and stuck his tongue out at Cameron - there was no way he was being bossed around by his former, easy-to-intimidate employee.

Alison sighed again as Cuddy picked up on her end "Dr. Cuddy, can you come down here please? House just pulled out Wilson's tooth and now he's sitting on the floor pouting ... yes, Wilson's bleeding everywhere… No he still won't listen to me, I'm sorry." Though she wasn't really sure why she was the one apologizing. She did genuinely feel bad about interrupting whatever the dean was doing but it wasn't as if she could help the fact that House simply wouldn't listen to her.

House let his defiant front drop a moment and he nibbled his bottom lip. That's funny. He never used to feel so nervous about getting in trouble with Cuddy, sure he didn't like it, he had always hated getting extra clinic duty and he always made sure to stay out of trouble for a few days after being assigned more hours simply because he didn't want even more. He didn't think that meant the punishment worked... Of course not, it was simply common sense that he allow Cuddy a few days to calm down before resuming his naughtiness… he did the same for corner time though it was more like a few hours (a day at most) then a few days but he chalked that up to the regression.

He didn't think it should surprise anyone that he found himself inhabiting the corner quite frequently. He pouted, he ended up facing the wall at least once a day but he thought that had to do more with the fact that, now that he was younger people didn't let him get away with the same things they used to. Nasty things he said that used to get over looked when he was an adult now got him banished to the corner and he didn't quite think that was fair.

He didn't even bother to examine that fact that instead of being nervous he should be pissed that Cameron had called her and told on him!

He had been so lost in thought that he had missed the rest of the phone conversation and thus did not know what the outcome was… He hoped Cuddy wasn't coming, if she had felt that he had behaved so poorly that she needed to drop everything she was doing to tend to him she would be really mad!


	3. Dog House

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

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Redux

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Chapter three- In the Dog House

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Alison hung up the phone quickly and glanced at Forman who was still reading his newspaper, despite the bleeding Wilson and sulking House, "Not planning to do anything, Forman?" She demanded as she took the wad of now very soggy napkin from Wilson's mouth. He had finally stopped bleeding.

Forman folded his newspaper over and glanced over the top of it, "Wilson and House always fight, what's new? I think we should just let them at it. It keeps them from messing with hospital equipment while they're too small to operate it properly."

Cuddy induced nervousness momentarily forgotten, House stuck his tongue out at Forman blowing raspberries at the man, "I may be small, but I can still diagnose better than you. You didn't even know his tooth was loose. You didn't even notice he wasn't eating. You call yourself a diagnostician. I should be working right now instead of stuck in this room, eating finger foods with thumb sucker over there." He gestured towards Wilson, who quickly whipped the finger he had been nibbling out of his mouth and looked as if he was going to cry again.

Just then Cuddy opened the door and stalked into the room. She stopped right in front of House, who was still sitting on the floor, now looking up at her with wide blue eyes, put her hands on her hips and stared down at Him, "Gregory William House, you know better than to hurt other people. You may not put your hands in other people's mouths. It is not unacceptable and it is not funny, you made Wilson cry." She spoke as if she really were speaking to an 8 year old, which, well, she was. She had always felt a need to speak like that to House but had refrained from lecturing patronizingly like this when he was an adult (at least for the most part) but now that inhibition was gone. She sighed, she really didn't think she should have to tell House things such as not to put his hands in other people's mouths!

House fought against the nervous bubbling in his belly not wanting Cuddy to spot his fear. Like any wild animal it was best not to show administers fear or they would attack.

She tapped her foot impatiently on the floor right in front of him and he barely swallowed a whimper…

Well shit, it wasn't just administrative bitch Cuddy, the one he usually had to deal with, this was royally pissed off momma Cuddy, the one that had been rearing its frightening head more and more the last few days, and it always meant trouble.

Gaining his bearings back, House scowled up at her, "I pulled his tooth out, big deal. He wasn't eating; I diagnosed the problem and treated it! That is my job after all!"

Cuddy pulled a chair away from the diagnostic table and placed it front of House. Then she went over to him, lifted him by his arm pits and stood him in front of her as she sat down on the chair so that they were at eye level with each other. "House." she sighed, exasperatedly, "You know better than to operate on a patient without their permission…" She sighed, truthfully seeing this was House, maybe he didn't know better… or more like just didn't care "Maybe Wilson didn't want his tooth out? And you made him cry. We don't hurt our friends." She explained a bit more patiently. Having his adult memories these were all things one would expect him to know however Cuddy knew House very well and knew that he didn't seem to have those boundaries like other adults have. That being the case she was using this opportunity to her advantage hoping to teach House a bit so that when he grew up again he could be a better adult.

"Yeah yeah. Whatever." House said trying not to seem as nervous as he was, trying to push down that gnawing guilt in his stomach. He gave a quick look over his shoulder at Wilson and Cameron, "Can I eat my fries now?" He asked almost sheepishly wanting to change the subject desperately.

Cuddy shook her head, "What you did was very naughty, Greg. I'm afraid there will be some stiff consequences."

House narrowed his eyes, and then stomped one foot childishly, "Fine, but I'm eating my fries in the corner."

Lisa sighed and shook her head, "Sorry Greg, it isn't going to be that easy this time, you really have crossed the line." She told him almost sadly as she stood up from the chair and grabbed his hand. "Come on, let's go back to your room." he said leading him to the door or the Diagnostics room. She stopped half across the room and turned around towards Cameron, "Can you two handle Jimmy or would you like me to take him with me as well?" She asked half sincerely and half sarcastically.

"We can handle him." Alison assured her a bit sheepishly; blushing a bit at her inability to control eight year old House. Wilson was always so much easier to handle, he didn't really get in trouble unless instigated by House and he always obeyed when told to do something even if it was to go to the corner. He was so much easier and more docile then House.

House, positive he did not want to go anywhere with Cuddy, was trying to wriggle his hand out of hers by bending and flexing his little fingers against her palm. Lisa simply tightened her hold in response and when he started to drag his feet pulling back before she could drag him out the door she turned to him with narrowed eyes.

"Greg, do you really want to lose your game boy for the next week?" She asked seriously.

House's face crumpled a bit and he knew she wasn't kidding and so he stopped his escape attempt and let her lead him out of the room.

He could feel his heart beat quicken with every step they took closer and closer to his hospital room, the one right next to the Diagnostics room which had been set up for him and Wilson. He didn't know what Cuddy had in mind but he knew he wouldn't like it.

Once they reached it Cuddy pulled him inside and closed the door behind her before pulling House over to his bed where she sat down leading him to stand in front of him.

"You, you can't really punish me! You're not my mom!" he told her trying to sound forceful but only succeeding in sounding petulant.

"No, I'm not your mom but I am your legal guardian." She reminded him. It had been something she worked out with the state of New Jersey after the accident. They had, had to be informed through the FDA and CDC given the circumstances and though it was being kept quiet for every ones sake, Jersey didn't want a riot of people demanding that this miracle drug be made available when it was so clearly not safe and the boys had not wanted the publicity. The state had determined that given the mental regression the boys be considered minors and needed a guardian which Cuddy had offered to take on seeing as putting two young children back on their now very elderly parents just wasn't a good idea, and the state had agreed.

"But, I'm not really a little boy!" he insisted stomping his foot again thus taking away all credibility from that statement.

"Greg, you may remember being an adult but everything about you now is a child. Right now you aren't an adult. Not anymore and maybe not again for a very long time. Now we are going to have a good long talk about your behavior but before that you are going to go get me your PSP and your Game Boy, you will not be seeing them again for the next two days." Lisa said her voice soft and patient. She knew it must be so hard for him to accept all of a sudden being a child again. It was something very difficult to come to terms with she was sure, especially for someone as fiercely independent as House.

"NO! You can't do this, it's bad enough I let you put me in the corner!" he yelled, that's right, he let her do that, he didn't have to cooperate even with that if he didn't want too!

"Oh you let me do you? Do you remember what happened the first time you refused?" She asked.

House grumbled, he remembered, he had been forced to stay in his room without any of his toys for the entire day.

"But you would already be taking them!!" he pointed out.

"I could keep them for much longer Greg." She warned.

"NONONO!!" House yelled a tantrum brewing "It's not fairrrrr he is just a big baby!!!" He yelled.

Cuddy sighed, she had not wanted to do this but House was out of control. Grabbing his arm she landed a single swat to his bottom not hard but enough to shock him out of tantrum mode, and then led him to the corner.

"You can just stand there until this tantrum is over!" She told him.

House yelped tears filling his eyes. He looked unbelieving at the wall, unable to reconcile the fact that she had just swatted him like that. However, it did shock him out of his tantrum.

He sulked in the corner and could hear Cuddy behind him going through his things presumably confiscating his toys.

Once she had located the game boy and PSP along with his I pod since he didn't seem to want to behave at all she would take that too, Cuddy sat back down on House's bed.

"You ready to stop this nonsense?" She asked.

"Y-Yes." Came the small reply accompanied by a definite sniffle.

Cuddy felt her heart clench. She hadn't swatted him hard but she had hated to do it, it upset her to know she had upset him, even if he was being a rotten brat.

"Then come here please." She beckoned gently.

House turned from the corner and ducked his head, though not before she had been able to see that his eyes were red rimmed, as he walked over to her.

She reached out and took him by the arm pulling him close and into a hug. She was pleasantly surprised when he didn't pull away but instead leaned into the comfort.

"Calm down Greg." She soothed gently stroking his hair "You earned that and you know it, your behavior is unacceptable. It is intolerable as an adult and I won't tolerate it from you as a child." She explained to him patiently.

"Y-You hit me." he sniffled, he hated that his childish emotions were making his react like such a… a… well child!

"I know Greg, I'm sorry." She said sincerely "But really, you pushed me to the breaking point with that last tantrum." She said with a sigh.

"But… I'm… I'm not really a child." He sniffled into her chest.

"Greg, we have been over this. You are really a child even your brain, despite the fact you have retained your memories, is that of a child. The sooner you accept that the sooner we can move on and work on making this work." Cuddy said as she held him a little more tightly, thrilled that he was allowing her too.

House didn't say anything, he didn't want to acknowledge she was right and he didn't have an argument to prove her wrong.

Giving Greg one last tight squeeze, Lisa pushed him back from her and looked him in the eye.

"These are mine for the next three days." She told him sweeping her hand over the small pile of electronics that sat next to her on the bed.

"You said two!" he whined then his eyes went wide seeing his I Pod in the pile "You didn't say my I Pod you can't take that please don't take my music!" He begged and Cuddy couldn't believe how pleading he sounded. It almost broke her heart.

"Greg…" She started

"Please, I won't try to pull out Wilson's teeth again." He promised emphatically. "I'll tell him sorry!" He added for good measure.

"Greg…" She tried again

"Please!! You can keep the others for a week!! Please don't take my music!" He begged pitifully. It was just his music… he couldn't be without his music he needed it!! She had to see that he needed it!! Like people need air he needed his music, she couldn't take it she couldn't…. He didn't even realize more tears had leaked down his cheeks until he felt Lisa's hand brushing them away.

"Shhh, Greg, listen to me… calm down…" She could feel her chest tighten. She hadn't meant to upset him that much. When he seemed to be listening she continued "I won't take your I Pod, I won't take it, its' ok." She assured rubbing his back gently "You don't have to give me the others for a week, ether. I will just hold on to them for the pre set three days as long as you behave ok?"

He nodded his head against her shoulder and gave a noisy sniffle. She stroked his head gently and reached over, grabbing the I Pod, she handed it to him. He leaned back and looked up at her giving a watery smile as he took the I Pod and pulled it to his chest possessively.

She smiled back and gave a small sigh.

"You ready to go back; you owe Jimmy an apology, hmm?" She said patting his back.

House sighed and pushed himself away from Cuddy's, wiped at his eyes one more time and then huffed as he let her take his hand and lead him back to the diagnostics room, glad that the rooms were close so there was less chance of people seeing him, his eyes all red rimmed.

Cuddy took House's hand and scooped up the two game systems in her other hand before leading him out of the room.

Entering the conference room again, House angled his body behind Cuddy's, his head down, feet scuffing against the carpet.

A bashful House was not something any of them were used too and seeing him like that made him seem even younger.

Lisa ushers House back out in front of her and cleared her throat.

"Sorry Jimmy." he muttered scuffing his foot again before pulling away from Lisa and heading back over to the food, sighing dramatically. He finally got up his nerve and looked over at Wilson, who was still sitting with Cameron, looking from Cuddy to House with wide eyes. House picked up took Wilson's pickle, crunched it and then said a little louder, "Really am sorry Wilson." He scooted back onto the chair, and started eating his friend's food, pouting at Cuddy.

"Come on Jimmy, finish your lunch." Lisa ordered gently walking over to him and taking his hand leading him out of Cameron's lap and back over to his chair. Sitting him down, she pulled his plate out of House's reach. Grabbing a plastic fork and knife from the take out bag she cute his burger into bite sized pieces placing the plate back in front of Wilson.

"Thank you." he said brightly shooting her a gap tooth grin. It was so cute that Cuddy had to physically force down an aww.

"Okay, I need to get back to my office I have some calls to make, a class to teach and some paper work to finish. I will bring you boy's dinner when I am finished." She informed them, she knew they had been adults and she wasn't really their mother but she was their guardian and at the moment they were children and she felt it important that as their parental figure, she spend time with them, time when they weren't in trouble… even if that didn't seem very often! "You know where how to find me if you need me." She said to Cameron then she gave the boys both a look that told them that she better not be needed again before giving Wilsons head an affectionate tussle and heading out the door.


	4. Goldfish and Seefood

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

A/N: I think this scene is my favorite yet!

A/N: pppsstttt I thought you all might like to know, I have the next chapters ready already and the more reviews I get the faster I will post, so please review :D

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Redux

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Chapter four- Goldfish and See-food

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When Lisa finished that evening she went in search of her two charges. She found them in their room. Wilson sitting on his bed with House and Kutner, playing poker for goldfish crackers while Thirteen lay on House's reading a book, peering over at them every sentence or so to make sure they weren't causing trouble.

"I got a pair of queens." Wilson said grinning as he noted that beat both House's pair of 10's and Kutner's… well Kutner had nothing.

"Ack; beaten by the runt again!" House groaned, that was the third hand in a row Wilson had won. House found Wilson much harder to read as a child then he had as an adult and it was throwing off his poker game!

Wilson stuck his tongue out at House crinkling his nose a bit. House had taken to calling him runt and he would be insulted by it if he didn't like it so much. He knew, for House, that was a term of affection.

Cuddy couldn't help but smile at the scene a moment before clearing her throat a bit to let them know of her presence.

Thirteen sat up closing her book and placing it next to her on the bed; she had been pleasantly surprised that the boys had actually behaved this time though she supposed it was because she had brought Kutner along to play. She had to admit, though at first she had been none too thrilled about being recruited to babysit her boss, it had been at least worth the decrees in her clinic hours that Cuddy had granted to them for taking on this duty telling them it was more than an even trade for them to spend the time they would normally spend in the clinic keeping an eye on the boys. Often times they actually wound up with more free time because between them they had far more clinic hours then the boys needed watching. They split the difference each of them winding up with an extra hour off a day because even if they weren't watching the boys during their clinic time they weren't required to go to the clinic as part of their payment for taking on the responsibility of the shrunken docs.

"They behave?" Cuddy asked as she placed the two Boston Market bags she was holding, on the small table that had been put in the boys' room for them.

"Actually, yeah, they have been playing cards with Kutner most of the afternoon." Thirteen said with a smile. Though Kutner really couldn't be trusted alone with them he was really good at keeping them busy as long as someone else was keeping an eye on all three of them.

"Thank you for the help, I've got things from here you are free to go." Cuddy said smiling back, relieved that the boys had behaved for a change.

Thirteen grabbed her book and Kutner helped clean the goldfish and crumbs off Wilson's bed before the two of them left.

"Okay, I brought dinner. So come eat." Cuddy told the boys gesturing to the table.

House hopped off the bed, munching on a handful of goldfish crackers on his way to the table where he took a seat and started to look through the bags to see what Lisa had brought them for dinner.

Cuddy went to take a seat next to House when she noticed that Wilson wasn't moving from the bed, where he sat still eating goldfish and looking less then interested in stopping to come get dinner.

"James, come eat dinner please." She ordered gently.

"I don't want it." Wilson nearly whined.

"Goldfish crackers are not dinner. Please come eat." Cuddy tried again patiently.

"NO!" Wilson yelled back at her with as much attitude as his new pint sized body could muster up.

"James Evan Wilson! You come here and eat your dinner right now or you can forget going to the park tomorrow." She warned him, her patients thinning.

"NOOOO!" Wilson cried out.

Cuddy raised an eyebrow; that was odd. She was sure threatening the park would get him to listen. The boys had been so looking forward to going because they had not been allowed out of the Hospital as of yet and were both crawling up the walls.

"Hey Runt; How bout I cut it up for you?" House offered in an uncharacteristic display of caring but Cuddy supposed he just didn't want to run the risk of not being able to go.

To her surprise Wilson nodded his head and padded over to the empty chair at the table. Then she kicked herself for forgetting the fact that the boy had just lost his front tooth that afternoon and probably didn't want to have to bite into chicken as of yet. Of course House would know that was why Wilson was giving her a hard time!

House gave her a smug look and then started pulling things out of the bags. Cuddy had gotten a full roasted chicken, some rolls, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, green beans and stuffing. In the other bag Cuddy had gotten cans of soda, bottles of water, some cookies, brownies and even cake looking things.

Cuddy had found out the hard way that, though their memories were intact, their tastes had changed. Which when she thought about it made sense. Children had different tastes then adults did mostly because your taste buds really did change as you got older there for what you liked to eat changes as well. There had been a near disaster the first day after they had been de aged when House had gotten a ruben only to find out that at the age of 8 he did not like them. It had been very upsetting to him. So armed with that info she made sure to get lots of choices as to avoid further disaster caused by taste changes.

House grabbed the knife, which blade was wrapped in a towel that Lisa had gotten from the cafeteria in her way up, to cut the chicken. Lisa's eyes went wide and she quickly grabbed the knife away.

"I think I will cute it up, thank you Greg." She said taking the plastic container with the roast chicken in it and placing it in front of her.

Opening the plastic container she cut up the chicken and placed pieces on each of three plates. She wrapped the large kitchen knife back in the towel she had put it in to transport it and placed it back into one of the now empty bags before putting it off to the side. Handing one plate to Greg she kept two in front of her, she would cut up Wilson's dinner, though she suspected House had counted on that when he had made the offer.

Cutting up his chicken with one of the smaller plastic knifes that are standard in the, to go bags, she placed Wilson's plate in front of him. Side dishes were passed about, drinks distributed and the make shift family tucked into dinner, eating in companionable silence.

"I beat House in poker!" James suddenly chirped into the silence excitedly.

"You did?" Cuddy asked with a grin, House was awfully hard to beat at poker.

"Yeah, Kutner too, but Kutner's not real good at cards." He confided.

Lisa was hard pressed not to chuckle at him. She didn't think James realized how very childlike (not to mention adorable) he had become. She supposed it must be much harder for him to fight then Greg as not only was he regressed more than Greg had been but he wasn't nearly as pig headed and guarded as Greg. So really it made sense.

"It's not my fault the runt is ridiculously hard to read." House grumped in way of explanation to Cuddy for having lost to the younger boy.

"Next time we play for money!" Wilson grinned as House armed him with that new piece of info. Maybe he could win back some of what he had lost over the course of their friendship.

House shook his head at Wilson and shoved nearly an entire roll into his mouth.

"EEWWW House!" James crinkled his nose.

"Greg, please eat like a human." Cuddy scolded.

House chewed the wad of food for a few moments before opening his mouth and using his tongue to push the blob of food out in Wilson's direction, just enough so Wilson could see it all but not enough to actually make it fall out of his mouth.

James gave a very girlish squeal and backed away nearly falling off the other side of his chair.

"HOUSE!" Cuddy yelled in exasperation.

House pulled the food back into his mouth and swallowed before giving Lisa a cheeky grin.

Despite herself, Cuddy couldn't help a small bubble of laughter that made its way out of her as she shook her head at House and reached over to steady Wilson on his chair.

"You are such a girl Wilson!" House taunted though with no real malice.

"Am not!" Wilson shot back sticking his tongue out at him and giving House a little shove, which, of course, provoked House to shove back which provoked Wilson to shove back which provoked House to shove back which provoked…

"Boys!!" Cuddy exclaimed garnering their attention and getting the shoving to stop. "Finish your dinners please." She finished in a much softer tone.

Both boys smiled sheepishly and went back to eating their dinners.

The boys seemed to behave themselves the rest of the meal. Disserts were given out and eaten without much ado. Showers were taken; each clean little body then put into a fresh pair of pajamas, teeth were brushed and wet hair was combed before two little boys crawled into their respective beds which had each been turned down by Cuddy while they had been getting ready for the night. Lisa then set about tucking each boy in, pulling their covers up tight around them each in turn ignoring the eye roll that was given by House at this action.

Grabbing the T.V remote, Lisa gave it to Wilson "It's Jimmy's night with the remote." She told House firmly when he had opened his mouth to protest. Already having lost the most fun of his toys, and not wanting to risk actually losing his I Pod, House wisely shut his mouth and settled for simply pouting.

Sitting on the chair between the two beds, Cuddy crossed her legs.

"I will stay until you fall asleep." She told them, not that she needed to, it was what she had been doing every night since the incident. Soon, when they were sure that the chemicals were not going to wear off and there were no dangerous side effects, aside from being de aged, she would take them home with her. Both of their parents were far too old to take care of a young child and they would never forgive her for splitting them up and sending them back to their parents.

House grumbled something but Wilson smiled gratefully at her as he settled on a channel.

Despite the arguments both boys had initially put up about being put to bed a 9:00 neither of them were yet able to keep their eyes open past 9:30.

When both boys were asleep Cuddy leaned down to take off her heels as to not make any noise while walking out, grabbed the remote from besides Wilson on his bed and turned the TV off before padding on stocking clad feet out of the room. She would come again to see them in the morning when they awoke for breakfast.


	5. A Real Bad Idea

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

A/N: My muse is hungry please feed it with yummy reviews.

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Redux

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Chapter five- A real bad idea

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"But you prrooommiisseeeddd." House whined stomping his foot for good measure.

"I know I promised but an emergency board meeting was called and you know I have to go. I promise as long as nothing comes up I will take the two of you out tomorrow." She told him. It had been well over a week and the boys had not be allowed out of the Hospital and finally Cuddy had agreed to take them to the nearby park, the one House often escaped to when wanting to stretch his legs and hide from clinic duty, so they wouldn't go completely stir crazy. This meeting had come up last minute, she felt terrible about it but there was little she could do and there was NO way she was going to let the boys go with anyone else. Not yet. Not when House didn't listen nearly as well when not with her.

"But you promised!" He said again as if repeating himself would make Lisa's obligation to attend the meeting simply vanish.

Wilson, who was sitting on the couch watching wide eyed had opted out of this one. If House wanted to argue with Cuddy and risk corner time or worse that was up to him but Wilson himself wanted no part of it.

"Greg, I have to go, Chase will be here in less than ten minutes, I'm trusting you can stay here and behave for those ten minutes or we can forget about the park till this weekend." She threatened.

That weekend!! That was like three days away. House couldn't remember the last time he thought that three days could feel like a life time but they did now.

With a sigh House tossed himself down on the couch next to Wilson and crossed his arms defiantly over his chest glaring up at Cuddy with angry blue eyes. "Fine" he sulked adding a "Humpf" on the end for good measure.

"I mean it Greg." She told him wagging a finger in his face before heading out her office door. She hadn't left the two fiends alone anyplace more than a few seconds since the fiasco with her tampons and House's contraband lighter but she hoped, now that she had shown House she could be firmer with her punishments, that he would head her enough to be left for a few minutes without destroying her hospital.

When House was sure Cuddy was good and gone, he uncrossed his arms, popped up straight and turned to Wilson with a large smile on his face.

Uh oh…. All the color drained from Wilson's face and he KNOWS that House was about to suggest something that simply wasn't going to end well.

"Come on Runt, let's go!" House encouraged jumping off the couch and heading to the door. He looked both ways down the hall to make sure no one was coming. No one that knew them or would rat them out that is.

When House realized that Wilson still had not moved from his spot on the couch he stormed back over and grabbed the other boy by the arm pulling him up.

"Come on Wilson! Let's go before Chase gets here." House says hurriedly, Chase showing up would ruin his plans and that would suck.

"This is a real bad idea." Wilson informs him even as he allows himself to be yanked off the couch. House was holding his hand as he guided him out of Cuddy's office to the hospital exit.

Holding his hand was something House had taken to doing just shortly after they had been de aged. Wilson looked so tiny and House felt almost protective of him even if he wouldn't admit to it.

The first time Wilson had pointed out the fact that House was holding his hand, an eyebrow raised at the older boy, House had reached out with his other hand to bop him on the head. He had grabbed Wilson's hand because the other boy had nearly gotten lost in a crowd of people rushing out through the halls at the end of visiting hours. After that House had taken to doing it more and more if there were more than a few people in the halls after all he would rather hold the younger boy's hand then deal with finding a lost Jimmy and drying the tears that would undoubtedly accompany him once found.

He only really had to do it when they were with Forman, sometimes with Chase as well, because usually Cameron, Cuddy and Thirteen would hold Jimmy's hand when walking through the halls so he didn't have to. Chase often forgot that Wilson was only little and Forman well he couldn't really picture Forman holding a child's hand and it was apparent Forman couldn't ether as he never tried. House himself had made it very clear he would not be holding any hands!! Well any adult hands, holding Wilson's hand was different because then he was the adult… sort of… Either way he was still him, and he didn't need an adult to hold his hand like he was some baby. He wasn't Wilson!

Right now the halls were nearly empty but he was holding Wilson's hand anyway in order to get him to keep up, they had to be fast about this or they might get caught, so House half lead half dragged Wilson to the hospital's front doors.

October had just started and the air was cool, crisp. The scent of fall hung pleasantly in the air and House took in a deep breath letting the cool, fresh air fill his lungs. The trees around the hospital were just starting to lose their recently colored leaves which blanked the ground with crunchy foliage. Wilson happily stepped through them, going out of his way to jump in the thicker piles that, to his delight, produced a louder crunch.

House had let go of his hand but stayed close to his side as they made their way through the hospital court yard, keeping a watchful eye on the miniature oncologist.

The park wasn't a far walk so it wasn't long before they reached their destination.

House hopped onto one of the picnic tables, lying down on his back he stared up at the sky. It was late afternoon, about 4:00 and he could tell that there wasn't that much day light left, the sun already giving off a faintly orange glow.

Wilson, having forgotten his reservations about this little plot, as he often did when full throttle into it, was bouncing beside him.

"Come on House lets go on the swings!!" He encouraged. It seemed like Wilson had given up on the entire 'maintaining that he was an adult' thing and was far more willing to allow the childlike feelings his new body and brain provided to take over, or maybe it was because his brain had regressed more and there for his adult defenses were even less then House's and he was simply unable to push the childishness aside as House had been struggling so valiantly to do. House sighed, he didn't know but ether way it was a bit annoying.

"If I come to the swings with you will you stop bouncing about like a mouse on Heroin?" He asked, pulling himself up on the table a bit to look at Jimmy.

Wilson crinkled his nose at House in that disgustingly cute way that was becoming all too familiar to House, it was the adorable way little Jimmy let House know he was annoyed with him. Then, deciding to cut his losses and accept the insult if it meant that House would come play with him, he nodded.

"Okay, fine. But I'm not swinging!" House told him firmly as he swung his legs off the table and hopping down to follow Wilson to the swings.

"That's okay. You can push me!" Wilson chirped, a goofy grin plastered on his face. That missing tooth, House decided, was making Wilson far too adorable! He groaned a little but simply couldn't bring himself to say no to the runt!

Wilson happily hopped onto an empty swing looking at House pleadingly. House sighed and stepped behind him. Grabbing the chains he pulled the swing back as far as his scrawny arms could before letting them go, getting the swing started. He then started to push gently on Wilson's lower back every time he swung back towards him.

Wilson giggled with child like glee as the swing went higher and higher and House even found himself smiling in enjoyment. It was hard not to. The runt's laughter was simply contiguous!

Soon, Wilson, being only six and having the attention span to go with his age, got bored and dragged House over to the jungle gym area where he even got the older boy to join him on the slide and climbing structure.

They played for a while longer but the sun was quickly setting, twilight taking over the sky and they decided to head back, besides, their absence was bound to have been noticed by now, in fact they were shocked no one had come to retrieve them. Young they were, stupid they weren't and at least House had figured that once they were noticed to be missing there would be no question as to where they had gone off too. He had fully expected a huffy well groomed, blond Australian to come marching into the park to collect them. He was rather disappointed he hadn't, he enjoyed Chase's huffy.

Then again, they were doctors so it shouldn't have surprised them that, that didn't happen. Chase was probably called in on an emergency as well and never even came around to see that they were gone.

It started to get rather dark as they walked and Wilson instinctively reached over and grabbed House's hand, clinging to it, tight. The streets where empty and eerily quiet, making him feel un-easy, he was getting a rather uncomfortable feeling in his gut and he just wanted to get back to the hospital…

It all happened so quickly, the almost too cliché dark colored van pulling up next to them, a large, dark haired man stepping out and latching a beefy hand around House's upper arm to pull both boys into said van. Wilson was surprised House had even been able to react. He certainly had not been able too, not that fast.

House let go of Wilson's hand pushing him away a bit as he felt himself pulled, not wanting the younger boy to get pulled with him, he then leaned over and bit the man, hard on the arm.

The man let out a scream but did not release his hold on House instead he brought his other hand up and backhanded him right across the face making his head spin.

Wilson, getting his bearings lunged at the attacker but was also backhanded hard in the mouth sending him flying back falling hard on his ass. He choked for a moment as his other top front tooth, which has just begun to wiggle was knocked out and down his throat. It was completely unpleasant to swallow one's own tooth.

"Get away!! Get Cuddy!" House screamed at Wilson, sensing he was not going to be able to escape and not wanting Wilson to get grabbed as well. He wanted Wilson safe.

James took the hint and started to roll away, all the way into the nearby prickly bush. The dark haired man decided to cut his losses before they attracted too much attention. After all, a kid in the hand was worth two in the bush, rather literally. Besides he didn't NEED both of them. He pulled House into the back of his van and his accomplice in the driver's seat quickly drove away.

Wilson extracted himself from the brush with a bit of trouble, the thorns biting a scraping at his skin, and tried, against all logic, to run after the van.

"HOUSE!!!" He screamed out in a sob, as if the boy in the disappearing van could hear him and might come back if he just called loud enough.


	6. 634

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

A/N: I thought I should explain that things in " " marks are things said out loud and things in ' ' are things thought, or things said in the characters own head and not out loud, this applies mainly to House.

OoOoOo

Redux

OoOoOo

Chapter six- 634

OoOoOo

As a last minute thought Wilson squinted to try and see the license plate, but it was too dark and the van too far away, the only thing he could make out was a 6 a 3 and a 4 before the van was completely out of sight.

Not even stopping to catch his breath, Wilson ran all the way back to PPTH as fast as his shortened legs would take him, the entire time repeating "634, 634, 634" out loud to himself over and over again.

Sobbing, running and talking all together was a hard endeavor and by the time he reached the hospital doors he felt like his chest was going to cave in but he forced himself forward. He ran through the lobby and into the clinic stopping only long enough to scan for a familiar face.

The first one he saw was Forman who was standing at the nurse's station trading in one patient folder for the next.

He ran over as quickly as he could and tossed himself at the man, who had turned around upon hearing the running feet.

"634" He sobbed out to Forman breathlessly as the man caught him in his arms.

"Hey, hey, James, what happened? Where is Greg?" Forman asked taking in the tear stained, bloody face complete with split lip and what looked to be a bruise forming at the side of his mouth.

"Took him!" James sobbed "Bad man took him!"

"What?" he asked lifting the sobbing and shaking boy up to prop on his, hip.

"He took him!! Bad man kidnapped House!" the distraught child cried clinging tightly to Forman his body shaking with excess emotion.

Balancing Wilson on his hip, Forman reached into his pocket for his cell phone and dialed the police before heading to Cuddy's office trying to calm Wilson down on the way.

OoOoOo

In the back of the van House was kicking, punching and biting at his captor.

"Let me go, let me go you pedophile!" he screamed biting down hard on his captor's hand.

"OW you bloody little bastard!" The man yelled in thick English accent, hitting House hard in the face. His head snapped back and hit against the door hard.

Dizzy, House gasped out a yelp. He tasted blood. The man was nice enough to have given him a split lip to go along with his back eye.

"Hey, Nigel, be careful, damage the goods to bad and he might not sell." The driver called back to him.

"Eh, the cheeky bugger will heal." The man, Nigel shot back.

House could feel bile rise up into his throat… goods? Sell? Who the hell where these men and what did they think they were going to do with him?

"LET ME GO!" He screamed as he brought his fist to punch Nigel right in the nose. Nigel gasped and growled, grabbing him around the neck he shook hard. House couldn't breathe. He choked and struggled and then, his head hit once more against the door, so hard the plastic cracked… or was that his scull… making a sickening noise in his ears. House could hear the driver yell something at Nigel though he couldn't tell what as he slipped into unconsciousness…

OoOoOo

Cuddy knelt next to the bathtub where a still sobbing and shivering Wilson sat in warm bubbly water as she gently cleaned him making sure to be careful about all the scrapes the prickly bush had inflicted.

She was trying to swallow down her own emotions, the fear and anger that were rising in her. How was it that no one noticed the boys were not in the hospital anymore??!!

A quick chat with Chase on the phone as she had readied James' bath had sorted out the fact that his surgery had run into problems and gone over 3 hours longer then slotted. By the time he finished and went to see if he was still needed to watch the boys he found that they were not in Cuddy's office and assumed that she had come and taken them somewhere, after all he had run long over his allotted time to come watch them, he would have looked in to it to make sure but his beeper had gone off, the patient he had just finished with had coded, thus completely distracting him not to mention monopolizing his time. In turn, when Cuddy had finished her meeting, she did not know Chase was still in surgery and assumed he had the boys, figuring she had some time before they drove Chase insane she had gone to help in the clinic. Thus no one noticed House and Wilson were well and truly missing so no one knew to go look for them.

The entire thing made Lisa feel sick, this all could have been avoided if Chase had called someone to look in on the boys, told someone he was running late, than they would have known they were gone. If only House could listen for once and done as he was told. If only she had not had to go to a meeting and let the boys down.

Taking a deep breath she kept herself calm knowing it was no use trying to blame someone. Getting all emotional served to real purpose, not when she had another very scared and upset little boy to take care of who would be effected very poorly if she lost control as well.

The police had arrived a few minutes earlier but Cuddy, having determined she would not be washing away any evidence, had already been in the middle of tending to Wilsons wounds not wanting them to get infected and so Forman was out there speaking to them, telling them what he had learned through speaking with James.

After cleaning his body and washing his hair, she carefully set about cleaning his blood covered face, dabbing a soft wash cloth around his swollen and bruised mouth, and washing off the tear tracks only to have new ones appear as soon as she finished.

Bath finished, wounds taken care of, Lisa reached into the water and pulled out the plug. When the water had drained she plucked the distraught child out of the tub wrapping him in a large fluffy towel.

Wilson was completely pliable not fussing or fidgeting at all during the entire thing, he just allowed Cuddy to do what needed to be done as he continued to cry himself out. His demeanor upset Lisa, it didn't seem right. He should have been fighting her about being bathed, should have yelled at her that he was completely capable of taking care of this himself, that despite how he looked he was still an adult, or at least had the memories and was there for capable, but no arguments were forthcoming as the child simply submitting to the entire thing thus attesting to his fragile state of mind.

Lifting him up she propped him on her hip and carried him back out to the room, grabbing an extra towel on the way, where two police officers were sitting in the plastic guest chairs talking to Forman who was sitting on House's bed.

Lisa opened the top draw of the dresser they had brought in for the boy's when they had gotten them some cloths, and pulled out a warm pair of pajamas, blue flannel with race cars, and tucked them under her free arm along with the towel, the other still balancing Wilson on her hip. Walking over to the bed she sat down and stood Wilson in front of her just long enough to dry him with the towel and slip him into the pajamas. She used the extra towel to help cover the child, put the pajamas on him while holding the towel in place to preserve his dignity. Rubbing one of the towels through his wet head she then lifted him back up and walked over to where the police were and sat down next to Forman on House's bed Wilson in her lap.

James clung to her laying his head against her shoulder sniffling, one hand coming up to rub at swollen red eyes random tears still leaking down but overall he was pretty depleted and over exhausted.

"Okay," One of the officers said as soon as they were settled down "Please, tell us what happened."

"634…" Wilson told them.

OoOoOo

House woke up some time later to find himself in a dark, small room. The first thing he did was take physical inventory.

'My head is bleeding not to mention aching like hell, and I am feeling queasy, okay so I have a concussion, a pretty bad one by the feel of it, neck is tender, probably bruised, eye and lip as well.' He thought as he ran his hands over his body.

'I still have my clothes on. Nothing below the neck seems to have been touched' he noted with a bit of relief.

'But it's cold, really cold.' he realized feeling gooseflesh forming all over his skin as a shiver ran up his spine, he rubbed his hands up and down his arms for a moment trying to garner a bit of warmth.

Trying to completely ignore his emotional state… `my IQ is higher than both these sickos' put together, nothing to be scared of, I will simply have to outsmart them, shouldn't be too hard, and escape.' He felt around the dark room to assess his surrounding next, and realized, from where he was sitting he could feel all four walls.

'Nothing but corners!' He realized. 'As if I didn't spend enough time in corners!' The room was really tiny and it seemed, based on tactile, made of cement blocks. All and all there was barely enough room for him to sit with his legs stretched out, and if he stood, any way he faced he would effectively be in a corner.

A tiny stream of light filtered through metal slots at the bottom of what House determined was the door, but not enough that House could see anything other than the fact that the floor was a dingy gray cement, he supposed the walls looked quite similar.

Feeling around a bit more to see if there was anything else in the room with him he found that he was completely and totally alone.

'Fuck, nothing at all in this room, I have nothing to use as a makeshift weapon… well… first things first, see if I can even get out' He struggled to his feet, bracing himself against the wall when he got all light headed and sick but it was no use, he doubled over and threw up all over the small room as well as himself.

'Oh EEEWWW, now I am going to be stuck in this small space with my own vomit, as if things weren't bad enough I had to add gross to it.' he mentally kicked himself and took a few deep breaths trying to calm his stomach and throbbing head. He hadn't felt this badly since the last time he had, had to detox. He could deal with it though. He had dealt with it then. Why then, did he feel like curling into a ball and sobbing? He pushed his emotions aside now, he wasn't going to get emotional, he didn't do emotional, he did rational, and so he was going to be rational now even if it killed him.

He felt around what he had determined was the door, for the knob. Finding it he tried to turn it.

'Fuck, fuck, fuck… locked!' He jiggled the handle desperately for a few moments but the lock held strong. He felt around it a bit, it was nothing but a solid plate, no key hole or a anything on this side. He couldn't pick it even if he had anything to try with.

Taking a deep breath, he tossed his body at the door and then, nearly collapsed in pain, his head did not like being jerked like that and the door had been far too hard for his tiny little body, he had to bite his tongue not to cry out in pain.

'OW, OW, OWW, shit!! That hurt!! But I have to try again!' He tossed himself against the door again, with similar results and he sunk down to his knees.

A moment later the tiny closet like room filled with light that made House's eyes burn and he found himself staring at a very angry looking Nigel.

'Well just… Fuck…'

OoOoOo

"…N then I ran back here. We weren't supposta go to the park. I'm sorry!" Wilson finished his tale, more tears rolling down his cheeks, a small sob escaping at his confession.

Cuddy gave him a comforting squeeze and rubbed his back soothingly. Letting him know without words that she wasn't angry at him, didn't blame him for what had happened even if it had been naughty to go to the park when told not to. She was sure it had been House's idea anyway but surprisingly she wasn't feeling angry at him either. She wasn't angry at all just very scared.

She would need to feed Wilson or at least coax him into drinking, after all the excitement and tears she feared he would dehydrate.

"Do you have a picture of him?" The officer asked this time addressing Lisa.

She nodded "Actual, yes I do." She affirmed. Cameron had surprised the boys on a few occasions with taking candids with the digital camera she had started to bring with her since she had began taking shifts watching the them, and given Lisa a few copies of select shots.

"Hey, Jimmy why don't you sit here with Forman while I go get it, ok?" She whispered right into the child's ear just for him to hear.

James gave a small whimper but nodded and allowed Lisa to place him on his own two feet as she rose and left the room to go retrieve the photos from her office.

To Forman's complete surprise, instead of climbing onto the bed to sit next to him Wilson, instead, climbed right into his lap clinging tightly to his chest. He froze for a moment, completely out of his element when it came to children, before circling the small shivering frame in his arms, letting the boys snuggle into him garnering the much needed comfort.

"Hey, little man, are you cold?" he found himself asking with an amount of concern and paternal instinct he didn't think he had in him. He even shocked himself!

Wilson didn't seem to notice the somewhat drastic personality change and simply nodded. He was feeling cold, freezing all the way through his body and in his bones, a deep chill the wrapped itself around his entire being, choking his emotions.

Forman balanced Wilson on his lap as he reached over to the child's bed and pulled the blanket off, wrapping it around the boy before snuggling him back into his chest. He was feeling oddly protective of him. Sure they had known each other for years, and he had liked Wilson well enough as an adult but they didn't have the kind of relationship that he thought would compel such feelings from him now. Yet there it was.

Cuddy came back a few minutes later with a small stack of photos which she handed over to one of the cops.

"Okay then, we will be in touch." the policeman said and he and his partner headed for the door.

Just as they were about to exit James looked up from where his face had been hiding in Forman's chest…

"Please find him! Please! He's my best friend." The little one pleaded.

OoOoOo

House squinted up at the angry man willing his eyes to adjust to the sudden light which was making his already painful head ach, even worse.

"Knock off the racket you bloody brat… EWW, hell, look at the mess you made!" He growled at House, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and giving a little shake.

"Let go of me you ugly gorilla!" House yelped "What do you expect you stupid oaf, you gave me a concussion!" he added when the man had finally unhanded him.

Nigel growled at him and reached for him again. House jumped back but was too slow and so he found himself once more gripped by the front of his shirt. However, instead of hitting him, as House had expected, Nigel yanked off his soiled shirt tossing it to the side before grabbing him tightly around his now bare, upper arm.

House struggled against him but he was too small and Nigel's grip to tight. When the man went to unsnap his pants and tug them down House swung his free arm as hard as he could to connect with whatever part of Nigel's body he could.

Nigel grabbed that flailing arms and twisted it painfully making House grit his teeth, he refused to cry out.

"A little help here Thomas." Nigel called out to the man that House recognized as the one who had driven the van.

Thomas heaved a sigh and rose from his chair, marching over he grabbed hold of House so that Nigel could finish removing the rest of his soiled clothing, shoes, socks and underwear, leaving House naked.

"Diddle me and Ill chop off your balls!!" House cried as he struggled with all his might against his captors.

To House's surprise and immense relief Nigel didn't lay a hand on him, instead he walked across the room, which now that House looked at it looked like some sort of basement, and grabbed a long green garden hose which was connected to a spigot in the wall.

Thomas tossed House back into the closet causing him to fall on his ass right in his own throw up, as Nigel came back over having turned on the hose.

House had no time to react, and no place to escape to had he been able too, before he felt freezing water pelting him. This time he could not hold back a scream as he was hosed down with the unbearably cold water. He scrambled on the floor in attempt to get away but between his shock and previous injuries, he got no were fast as every inch of his body was assaulted with water so cold it felt like it was burning him.

The stream of water made its way up and down his body even straying to his face where it stayed a few moments making House feel as if he was drowning. He spluttered and gasped for air until the spray was moved back down his body.

"This ought to cool you off." Nigel teased as he doused him making sure to hold the freezing spray on each part of his body for at least 5 seconds before moving on, which caused House to cry out as the cold water lingered so long on each spot it hurt. Nigel kept at it for a few minutes making sure the child was completely miserable as well as clean.

Deeming the child and closet clean, Nigel walked back over to the spigot and turned off the hose as Thomas closed and re locked the closet door trapping House once more inside.

House scrambled into the corner, naked, wet and freezing he curled into a ball his entire body shivering his teeth chattering his fists clenched tightly as he tried to garner a little bit of heat.

OoOoOo

A/N: Please spare a moment to review. Reviews really mean so much to me


	7. Completely Cornered

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

A/N: I thought I should explain that things in " " marks are things said out loud and things in ' ' are things thought, or things said in the characters own head and not out loud, this applies mainly to House.

A/N: Also I thought I would give a little cry out here for anyone willing to make a banner for any of my stories or illustrate them. I would be willing, if desired, to do a trade where in I would write something for you in exchange. Ether a chapter to one of my existing stories or something else (as long as it is something I can write!)

OoOoOo

Redux

OoOoOo

Chapter seven- Completely Cornered

OoOoOo

It was no use; she couldn't get James to eat, drink or sleep. The only thing the child seemed to want to spend any time doing was crying. Cuddy had resorted to placing an IV into his hand to prevent dehydration.

It had been about 8 hours since the police left and so far there had been no news. Lisa had spent the entire time rocking and shushing Wilson who was making himself physically sick with all the sobbing. She had tried to get him to eat but he out right refused, she even tried to get him to simply drink a glass of water but he wanted no part of it. He told her he would eat when he could eat with House.

The little boy was exhausted, Lisa could see he was exhausted but he refused to sleep. He refused to let his body calm, forcing more tears and sobs from himself even as his entire body protested against it.

As she rocked him gently in her lap, Lisa placed a call to Forman. She had an idea of how to get Wilson to relax enough to sleep whether he wanted to or not, without resorting to sedatives, but it wasn't something she could really do herself.

Forman, who had been at home but not asleep, there was simply no way he could, came back to the hospital immediately. Cuddy's request was something so simple and if it would make any difference at all he was willing to give it a try even if it was an ungodly hour of the morning.

Walking into the boys' room he looked over at the two of them and nodded to Cuddy who carefully removed the IV from James' hand.

Forman walked over and lifted Wilson up out of Lisa's lap, blanket at all and patted his back until he took the hint to lean into him. Getting a good firm hold with his arm under the child's bottom, his other hand rubbing at his back, Forman, started walking back and forth across the length of the room.

Wilson may have been young again but he wasn't stupid, he knew what this was and he tried to fight it but he was too exhausted to put too much effort into it as most of his reserves were going to crying. He couldn't help it when he started to relax into Forman's broad strong chest, it just felt so safe. The safe feeling made him cry harder. Right now House wasn't safe!

Hearing the increased sobs Forman went from rubbing to patting his back, not hard but firmly, with just enough force to redirect James' thoughts from where ever they were, to the patting.

It seemed to work as Wilson let out a hitched sigh before going limp in his arms.

Forman made a few more trips back and forth across the room before he could feel the steady rise and fall of the child's chest and he was certain he was asleep.

He nodded at Lisa letting her know of their success before walking over to Wilson's bed and gently laying him down on it, re arranging the blankets and tucking him in.

Cuddy walked over and sat down on the bed next to James, watching him for a few moments.

"I am going to stay here. I don't want him to wake up alone." She whispered to Forman.

"Do you want company?" Forman asked also in a whisper and gave a small smile at Cuddy's nod.

OoOoOo

House forced himself to stay awake. It wasn't too hard, despite the fact he was exhausted he was far too cold to fall asleep. He never thought he would be grateful for being naked and freezing but he did need to stay awake. The concussion was bad and so he couldn't fall asleep, he needed to stay awake not only because of the concussion but because he had to monitor his own condition.

'Cold, so cold' He shivered and rubbed his hands up and down his arms and legs in hopes that the friction would create even just a bit of warmth.

Lying his head on his knees he tried to ignore the pain that filled his entire body. He was used to pain, he was sure the pain of his infarction had been much worse than this, but then why did this hurt so much more!

He shivered even more as he leaned into the wall… walls and corners with no escape… completely cornered. That was what his life had been reduced too… one big corner. Oh how he hated corners!

Keeping his ears open he listened to the two men on the other side of the door, waiting for indication that they were sleeping or maybe gone. He looked at the floor right where the small amount of light came in through the slits and stared at the shiny red, slightly rounded rectangle that resided there… his prize for having endured the icy shower.

Reaching out a hand he traced his pointer finger over the hard earned pocket knife. 'I can so beat these two idiots with just a pocket knife.' He had managed to get it from Thomas' pocket during their struggle. He had placed it in the little patch of light so he could see it while he tried to warm. Looking at it would give him ideas on how to use it to escape. He reckoned he could pick the lock with it and at least it was some sort of weapon, it made him feel a little less helpless and a little more in control. Now he just had to bide his time.

OoOoOo

"Just drink a little." Cuddy urged Wilson, trying with all her might to keep the exasperation out of her voice.

"Noooo" he cried pushing her hand, which held a glass of water to his face, away, causing a bit of its contents to slosh over the brim.

James had woken up a few minutes earlier, from a nightmare. He had gotten about 6 hours of sleep before the nightmares had started. Cuddy had managed to get him to settle down to sleep a few more hours after that but the nightmares were persistent from there on in and he was constantly tossing and turning, becoming agitated in his sleep. They had given up on the entire ordeal a few minutes earlier and Lisa was simply hoping that, having been a doctor, Wilson would listen to reason and drink the water in order to stave off dehydration. The hope had been in vain.

The police had called earlier that morning, but only to tell her that they hadn't found anything yet. Lisa was becoming scared, well more like terrified, she had passed scared hours ago. But knew she needed to keep her emotional level down for Wilson's sake.

Forman, who was sitting on House's bed, readied a new IV holding it where he knew Wilson would see it in hopes it would get him to drink if only to avoid being poked with an IV needle again.

It didn't work!

Sighing, Forman reinserted the IV into one of Wilson's little hands. James complained and fussed a bit but Cuddy held him still so the IV could be safely inserted.

"We can take that out when you agree to start eating and drinking James. It does House no good for you to make yourself ill." Lisa said, pulling him into her lap for a, snuggle.

James curled up in her lap, little whimpers escaping from his lips every now and then, one small thumb finding its way to his mouth. Cuddy had noticed this habit of his, he often did it at night or when he was feeling stressed. She was sure it wasn't something he would ever want her to know if he had been in his adult skin.

Lisa sighed and rubbed his back, she really wished the child didn't have his mind set on self destructing. It seemed selfish, even to herself, but she really wished she didn't have to deal with James' down word spiral on top of House being missing. She knew logically that he was 6 and traumatized and as scared as she was, even more scared since he had been there when it happened. Still, though it was a lot for her to handle.

She jumped out of her reverie when she felt a hand settle on her shoulder and she looked up to meet the concerned eyes of Forman. She gave a small smile but even she could tell it looked, forced without even being able to see it. It was forced.

OoOoOo

It was quiet on the other side of the door and had been for a little while now. Reaching out, House grabbed the pocket knife and palmed it.

'Now, how best to use this…' he checked out all the little features on it. Sliding out the knife he looked up at the door examining it.

'There is no way to unlock this from the inside. But if I unscrew the door knob completely I can reach in and manually disengage the lock.'

He stifled a cough which made his chest hurt 'fuck, just what I need, to get sick!'

Sitting down again for a moment he closed his eyes 'just a moment, I just need to rest my eyes for a moment…'

He woke up many hours later, he couldn't say how many, to yelling coming from the other side of the door.

'Fuck… how long was I out for…" he stifled a moan. Sleeping had been a bad idea as he had woken up with a stuffy nose, burning chest, achy ears and his head hurt, if at all possible, even more then it had before. Not only that but by the sounds of it he had lost his chance to escape, at least for the time being.

"I don't know what you are so worked up about! They are still going to buy him!" he heard Nigel yell, he knew it was Nigel because of the English accent. Thomas sounded like he came from South Carolina.

"Yes but we had to knock quite a tidy sum off his cost because you damaged him!" Thomas growled back, in agitation.

"What is an $800 damage fee when we are getting over $500,000 for him?" He heard Nigel ask "It isn't like there is any permanent damage! He is still a blue eyed male under the age of 10, the most voluble aside from newborns, even if he is a little bruised." He defended.

"You're lucky, permanent damage knocks tens of thousands off the value, if he could even be sold at all and you know how I hate to put them down." Thomas argued.

'Put down… surely that didn't mean…' House felt his stomach clench but he put it off as being part of him being sick as opposed to being scared.

They were talking about him like he was some kind of animal, a pet to be sold! The thought did not go over well with him, not in the slightest!

"We aren't going to have to put him down and the buyer isn't backing out, so calm down. In less than 2 days we can deliver him get our money and be done with this one! Honestly if he wasn't such a bloody brat he wouldn't be damaged! I have never had one that acted so cheeky before." Nigel huffed.

'2 days… 2 days that's a day and 3/4th more then I need to escape' he thought with more confidence then he had any right to feel given the situation.

OoOoOo

Cuddy was on the phone once more with the police. It had been nearly a day since House had disappeared and still they had yet to come up with any solid leads. Lisa was taking it on herself to keep them on task, not that she realistically thought that her bugging them would likely bring about faster results but she had to feel like she was doing something.

Forman was sitting over in the corner in a rocking chair Chase had procured for him, Wilson in his lap as he rocked the boy soothingly. Mindful of the IV in the child's hand, Forman rocked the chair slowly. It thankfully had the desired effect of calming the boy even if he still stubbornly refused to eat, drink or willingly sleep.

Cameron had taken over for Cuddy while she dealt with things. She would hold down fort as dean of medicine until the entire nightmare was over. Thirteen, in turn had taken over the ER while Kutner and Taub kept the clinic running and Chase, on top of his normal hospital duties, took care of whatever little errands needed to be run such as getting the rocking chair. The diagnostics department had been completely shut down.

They had all rallied together to leave Lisa and Forman free to take care of Wilson and helping the police find House. Forman wasn't really sure how it was he had been recruited to help out with James, maybe it was because he was the first one Wilson had found upon his return, either way it had happened and he would do his part. He didn't know why, when he never seemed to really care before, that he should feel such a strong need to help Cuddy with the child, but he did.

Hanging up the phone, Cuddy sighed and ran a hand down her face. Forman looked at her in concern.

"What did they have to say?" he asked.

"They have been scanning through all of the traffic cams for any dark blue or black vans that have license plate starting with 634 as well as running the numbers through the DMV, they haven't gotten any hits yet and the numbers are their only lead." Lisa explained what the cop had told her. She tried to keep the emotion from her voice but she couldn't help that it sounded choked with tears, the tears she was fighting so hard to hold back.

OoOoOo

House listened raptly, his ear pressed to the door. He had been mildly surprised that neither man had so much as opened the door again. Not to give him anything to eat or drink. Not even to yell at him or douse him with freezing water again.

'Nothing, I haven't heard anything out there for nearly 10 minutes… probably gone…' he leaned down a bit, nearly folding in half to try and peer through the slots at the bottom of the door. He could see just a tiny bit out and he didn't see any feet, he felt safe that the coast was clear.

Picking up the pocket knife and forcing himself to his feet, House braced himself against the wall to keep his balance, he was feeling light headed and queasy and he didn't want to be sick again or pass out.

He took in deep breaths to steady himself before sliding out the knife attachment. He studied the door knob as well as he could, considering how dark it was in his little room. His eyes had adjusted to the lack of light but it was still really hard to see anything.

Feeling about with his fingers he managed to find one of the screws and he guided the knife into the grooves on the head. The knife wasn't exactly the right shape and size for it but it would do the job given some extra time and elbow grease.

It took all the strength he had in his little hands to even loosen the screw a little. It seemed that someone had painted over it at some point and it had been stuck but, good…

The door jerked open forcefully and House jumped back staring up at Nigel with wide eyes…

OoOoOo

A/N: Wow, wow, wow! The reviews for the last chapter had me floored, that you so much!! Your encouragements mean so much to me!! Please keep on reviewing and I'll keep on cranking out the chapters!


	8. Breaking Out and Breaking Down

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

A/N: I thought I should explain that things in " " marks are things said out loud and things in ' ' are things thought, or things said in the characters own head and not out loud.

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Redux

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Chapter eight- Breaking Out and Breaking Down

OoOoOo

House jumped back into the dark little room, eyes wide as he stared up into Nigel's angry face. His hand went quickly behind his back hiding the pocket knife and hoping that Nigel hadn't seen it.

He held his breath as Nigel continued to stare him down.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" he demanded "You are making a racket!" he complained.

"This space isn't big enough for a mouse!" House snapped at him "Of course I'm making noise! I can't breathe in here let alone get comfortable."

Nigel glared at him a few moments and House tried not to fidget under the gaze.

"Well knock it off!" Nigel demanded before pulling the door closed hard locking House inside once more alone.

House breathed a sigh of relief and sank down to the floor, his back against the wall. That had been far too close for comfort.

OoOoOo

Forman lay the sleeping child down on his bed arranging the IV at the head of the bed making sure the line didn't tangle. Tucking the blankets up over Wilson's tiny body he gently brushed some stray hairs out of the child's face.

Heading over to the bathroom which Cuddy had retreated to nearly 15 minutes earlier, he knocked on the closed door.

"Come in." Her voice was a bit nasal, sounding choked with tears.

Forman opened the door, peering in he frowned slightly. Cuddy was leaning over the sink, tear marks in running mascara trailed down her cheeks, her nose and eyes were red and her shoulders were shaking as she tried unsuccessfully, to suppress more tears.

Stepping into the bathroom, Forman pulled Cuddy to him and gave her a hug. He didn't know what had come over him but it simply felt like the thing to do.

Giving her a squeeze before pulling back and grabbing a washcloth from the folded pile next to the sink, he turned on the cold tap and ran it under. Ringing it out a bit he gently set about cleaning Cuddy's face. He honestly had no idea what had gotten into him, he wasn't the touchy feely emotional type, he, wasn't comforting or understanding, yet here he was. All he could say was it seemed like the right thing to do at the time and so he did it.

Lisa actually allowed him to hug her and then clean her face, it was out of character for her given her normal independent nature but this was different. She was so spent that it just felt good to allow him to take care of her for the moment even if she felt more than a little silly.

"I'm sorry." She said sheepishly.

"Don't be, I understand. This is… this is really hard." Forman allowed though hard, hardly seemed a strong enough word to describe it all.

"Just got a little overwhelmed." She agreed, though she had passed overwhelmed hours ago and having to squash her own emotions to take care of James had not been helping.

"Greg will be ok." Forman assured.

"You don't know that, bad things happen to children all the time." She nearly started to cry again.

"This is House we are talking about. The very same person who survived an infarction, countless OD's, being shot twice point blank, came through a drug scandal perpetrated by a cop out for blood unscathed, lived through electrocuting himself via a knife in a wall socket, a skull fracture, heart attack, deep brain stimulation, seizures and comma not to mention unprecedented de aging. He isn't about to let a few kidnappers get the best of him." Forman said trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince Lisa.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they came knocking on our door any minute now begging us to take him back." He added trying to lighten the mood just a bit.

Taking in a deep breath, Cuddy managed a small smile before following Forman out of the bathroom.

OoOoOo

Being as quiet as he could, House worked on the second screw, the first one placed carefully in the darkest corner of his little space. Just in case they checked in on him again they wouldn't see it, at least not right away, giving House time to try and hide it with his body.

The door knob was screwed in with many screws all around a square metal plate. House couldn't really see to count them all and his head hurt too much to try but he knew it would take him a long while to get them all out especially given the fact that he had to go slower now in order to avoid making too much noise.

Finally getting the screw free after nearly an hour of work, House placed it in the dark little corner with its friend and sat back down in the small space. He was feeling light headed and shaky. He was freezing but sweating at the same time.

'Great, just great, I have a fever and by the feel of it, at the very least, a chest infection.' House took a deep breath which wheezed, he had to fight back a coughing fit, not wanting to attract the attention of either man, and wiped a hand across his sweaty brow. He would take a short little break before starting on the next screw.

He wished he knew what time it was, how much time he had left. The worst thing about being turned into a kid again was his sense of time was completely messed up so he couldn't even estimate how much time had passed, it all felt like forever.

Pulling his knobby knees up to his chest he laid his head on them trying to control his shivers. He wondered if either idiot would think to give him back his clothing, he didn't even want to think that they might not… Didn't want to think of the kind of people who would want to buy a naked boy…

OoOoOo

A scream echoed through the hospital room waking Cuddy with a start and she jumped out of bed running over, she sat on the edge of Wilson's and pulled the shaking boy into her lap.

"Shhh, it's ok." She cooed rubbing his back and helping him calm "another nightmare?" She asked when his breathing evened.

Wilson nodded and whimpered, tiny hand wrapping in the oversized T-shirt Cuddy was wearing along with a pair of sweat pants she kept in her locker, as makeshift pajamas, and clung tightly to her.

Getting frustrated with the stupid IV he ripped it from his hand, giving a little yelp, he had been a bit too rough about it.

Lisa sighed and took his little hand in hers, rubbing the sore patch. "Now that was a silly thing to do." She said softly. She didn't however, put the IV back in, she hoped she could get him to eat or drink in a little bit and the saline bag was nearly empty anyway.

Peering over at the clock, Lisa saw that it was already 6am, it wasn't likely that either of them were going back to sleep, so she carried him over to the rocking chair and sat down with him in her lap.

"You want to tell me about the nightmare?" She asked as she rocked him in the chair.

Wilson shook his head and hid his face in her chest.

"I want House." He muffled into her shirt.

OoOoOo

House jerked awake letting out a soft moan at the pounding in his head. He hadn't meant to fall asleep again. He wondered what time it was, how long had, he been asleep…

Rubbing his eyes and grabbing the pocket knife, he pulled himself to his feet, it would probably take all day but he would get the rests of the screws out! He just wasn't so sure what he would do after. He didn't know where he was exactly or who was still on the other side of the door not to mention the fact that he was still naked though he supposed, he had never been known to possess much shame and it wouldn't be beyond him to run from there naked if it meant getting free.

His entire body ached and his hands trembled as he managed to get the knife into the next screw. He felt weak as he expended energy he simply did not have on trying to escape. He wasn't sure how long it had been since he had last had anything to eat or drink but he knew he was becoming dangerously close to dehydrated. His lips and mouth were all dry and yucky and though his stomach hurt too much to be hungry, he was extremely thirsty. He also really had to go to the bathroom and it was becoming increasingly hard to hold it in.

Just thinking about it made his stomach cramp and his bladder protest and he weighed his options…

Collecting the screws he had freed and the pocket knife into his fist he pounded on the door hoping someone was on the other side to hear him.

"HEY!!! HEY OUT THERE I HAVE TO USE THE BATHROOM!!" he yelled pounding on the door more."UNLESS YOU ARE LOOKING TO CLEAN UP BODILY WAIST LET ME GO TO THE BATHROOM!!!"

A few moments later much to House's relief as well as trepidation, the door was yanked open and he peered up at Thomas who reached in and grabbed him by his arm and pulled him out. Though not exactly gentle he wasn't nearly as rough with him as Nigel had been.

He dragged him out into the basement like room and over to another door. Pulling the door open he pushed House inside before closing the door on him.

"Make it fast!" Thomas barked at him through the door.

House was immensely relieved to see the bathroom and quickly set about taking care of business.

After relieving and cleaned himself he went to the sink, dropping both screws down the drain before turning on the water, he wouldn't have to worry about hiding those two anymore at least. Resting the pocket knife on the edge of the skink, House washed his hands and then cupped them to collect some water in. He splashed his face a few times before using his cupped hands to sip water from. He drank as much as he could before he heard the impatient voice on the other side of the door yelling at him to finish up.

Taking one last long drink, House grabbed the pocket knife again, tucking it into his fist once more, glad his captors were too stupid to question why he was keeping his hand in a fist, and opened the bathroom door.

Thomas, who had been standing guard at the door, immediately grabbed him by the arm again, dragging him back to his prison he tossed him back in. To House's surprise Thomas then tossed his freshly laundered clothing at him barking the order to get his skinny ass dressed before locking him in once more.

OoOoOo

Cuddy hung up the phone looking white as a ghost. She looked over at Forman who was sitting on Wilson's bed with him, Wilson, lying on his stomach while Forman rubbed his back soothingly. He was awake, but barely so. He had refused breakfast and lunch, Dinner was quickly approaching and if he refused that as well they would have to put the IV back in. Her, and Forman had spent most of the day fighting with Wilson to eat and drink and playing phone tag with the police. The day had dragged on forever and gone far too fast all at the same time.

"What?" He asked.

"They think they may have found the van on one of the traffic cams… exiting Jersey into New York." She said around the lump in her throat. If they had gotten out of the state not only would it be harder to find them but it most meant that the FBI was now going to be involved and though more man power was good it tended to get messy when the different law agencies had trouble getting along over jurisdiction arguments.

"That's good, really it's good it may complicate things a little but at least it's another lead." He assured as he continued to rub Wilson's back. He had become a bit agitated over the news and was squirming on the bed presumably trying to sit up. Forman gave his back a few firm pats to encourage him to lay back into the bed and resumed rubbing once he had.

Cuddy nodded "The FBI is getting involved. The officer said they will most likely want to talk with us." She told him.

"He's been gone almost two whole days." Wilson piped up in a small, sleepy, sad voice laced with tears.

"He will be okay… He is made of some really tough stuff." Forman said to him.

"Yeah…" Wilson yawned "Tough stuff." He agreed as his eyes began to drift shut.

OoOoOo

House crouched down and peered through the slats at the bottom of the door.

'Good, they aren't here, that makes my job just a bit easier' He got up to his feet and tossed the last screw into the pile in the corner. Wiggling the knife under the edge of the door knobs plate he started to pry it up. It was stuck to the door with some paint making his job all that much harder.

Getting the plate free, he continued to use the knife as a screw driver to tinker with the inner working of the knob.

He was close, so close, he just had to disengage the lock mechanism which he had hard won, access to.

It was hard. He really couldn't see what he was doing so he was poking around inside the door knob blindly.

It took a while and House was starting to get really frustrated when he felt and heard the metal barrels of the lock tumble out of place and release. Yanking the door open in triumph he placed the pocket knife in his pocket and exited out into the light.


	9. Into the and Light Into the Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

A/N: I am so sorry this one took so long to get out but I have been very sick with the flu and busy with work, we are trying to get this pilot program off the ground not to mention that I start school again soon because I am taking summer classes, so life has been insane.

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Redux

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Chapter nine-Into the Light and Into the Darkness

OoOoOo

"The New York City police special victims unit has been informed and a picture of Greg has been given to them. Apparently they have been tracking these guys for some time, they are suspected in the abductions of children all over the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut area. They are believed to be involved in child trafficking." The FBI agent informed Cuddy.

"Trafficking?!" Cuddy asked in horror.

"Believe it or not this is a good thing. It means they aren't going to hurt him. If they abducted him with plans on selling him they wouldn't harm him as that would be counterproductive and a waste of their time. Most of the people who buy children like that are doing so because they have given up on adoptions. There is much less red tape to go through if they just buy a child, that way they also get to pick things like age, gender and even eye color. Things you cannot really do with adoption." he explained.

This didn't make Lisa feel any better as she was sure the agent had intended it too. Her stomach was in knots, she couldn't imagine what House was going through and she hoped he really was truly unharmed.

She peered over at Wilson who was sitting on his own in the rocking chair curled up in his blanket, his thumb in his mouth, eyes drooping closed. It had been another hard night and once again the little one had not gotten much sleep. Looking at the child so small and miserable, if for no other reason, she hoped House was ok… for Wilson's sake.

OoOoOo

House peered around the room. It was nothing but a cement basement. It was small and rather dark, not much lighter then the little room he had been stuck in had been.

There was another door to the side, which House knew was the bathroom, and then the spicket in the wall which the hose was attached too. In the middle of the room was one of those foldable bridge tables with two chairs. A discarded pack of cards and some empty beer cans littered its top.

House padded slowly and quietly over to the third door, which, by process of elimination, he knew had to be the exit.

Though the basement wasn't all the large, House found that he needed to stop a few times to keep the room from spinning or to swallow down a cough, which made his chest feel like it was going to explode.

Taking in shallow breaths, as to not induce a coughing fit, House eventually made it to the door, without making too much noise.

Reaching out he grabbed the door handle, the door was blessedly unlocked, he turned the handle in triumph opening the door…

OoOoOo

A hand gently rubbed at Wilsons back easing him into the waking world.

"Mommy…" The still mostly sleeping child croaked.

"It's me." Lisa corrected him.

"Oh…" Wilson rubbed at his eyes, seeming almost disappointed as he pushes himself up.

Lisa had hated to wake him. He hadn't been getting much sleep so she wanted him to rest when he could. It was a shame to get him up now seeing as he was actually able to sleep without a nightmare at the moment. But the FBI had sent over a sketch artist to work with James to see if he could remember enough to give them at least a rough composite of the abductor. And, besides the fact that James would be very unhappy if he wasn't woken for that, Cuddy didn't want him to get into the habit of sleeping too much in the middle of the day, it would be very hard to get his sleep schedule back on track if… no when, they found House. And really they didn't need more to deal with than they were already going to have.

"The forensic artist is here, James." She informed him gesturing with a tilt of her head to the young man sitting in one of the visitor's chairs by the table.

Wilson nodded and slid off of his bed, padding in sock clad feet over to the other chair that had been placed across from the artist.

"Okay, can you tell me how the man's head was shaped?" The artist asked, begining his rather long list of questions.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, James answered all the man's question on the kidnapper's appearance to the best of his ability, stopping every now and then to try and remember. It was really hard, his brain was foggy unwilling to recall the monster's face. But he wanted so bad to be able to help find House that he was almost forcing his mind to remember things that were, perhaps, a tad to traumatic for his regressed psyche.

By the time he had finished his heart was pounding in his ears and tears were welling in the corner of his eyes.

The sketch artist dropped the pencil and sighed rubbing his eyes and looking down at his sketch before lifting it up to show Lisa.

"Looks familiar?" He asked bemusedly, there was a reason he disliked working with children for such occurrences were not uncommon.

Lisa looked at the picture… really it would have been funny if the situation had been slightly different. She shook her head a bit and walked over to Wilson where she knelt down so that they were face to face.

"Are you sure that is who you saw, Jimmy?" She asked the child who nodded his head fervently.

Taking the drawing from the artist she held it where Wilson could see it.

"Sweet heart, this is Freddy Krueger." She explained gently.

James' eyes went wide. He hadn't realized it when he was describing the man, but he did look exactly like Freddy Krueger, and while Wilson's mind was a bit foggy and confused he knew that wasn't right.

Letting out a sob he hid his face in his hands in shame. House needed his help and he couldn't do anything right!

Lisa reached out and lifted Jimmy up from under his arms. Sitting in the chair she had just lifted him from she placed him in her lap where he immediately hid his face in her neck.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." She assured.

"Noooo, it's not okay" Wilson cried "House woulda been able to do if for me." He sobbed.

Cuddy rubbed his back and looked up at the sketch artist for help. The man sighed and nodded.

"Listen, this actually happens quite frequently with children. They have something traumatic happen and their mind associates the person who did whatever bad thing with monsters and bad guys they have seen on TV." He explained.

"I… I wana try again." Wilson said, peering up at the man. He could do better he knew he could!

The artist wanted to say no, he knew it would just be a waste of his time but the look Cuddy was giving him told him he better never again get sick or hurt in the Princeton area if he said no, so picking up his pencil he nodded to the boy and said "Alright then… how was his head shaped?..."

OoOoOo

House made his way up, what seemed to him like millions of steps, out of the basement.

He found himself in a very old looking, dusty house. There were filthy, moth eaten slip covers over threadbare furniture, tables and chairs that were missing legs or arms not to mention enough cobwebs adorning the ceilings to knit a sweater for Sasquatch.

The air was more parts dust then oxygen and House was finding it nearly imposable to breath. He was quickly losing the battle against the coughing fit which had been threatening to take him down. His lungs felt as if they were going to explode as he tried not to breath in hopes the nagging tickling in his chest and at the back of his throat would just go away.

The house was large and rather confusing; House wasn't so sure where to find the front door, or even the back one for that matter. The hallways made this sort of winding maze with closed and sometimes locked doors on either side. House found himself trying nearly every door, but the ones that weren't locked merely landed him in another dust infested room.

No longer able to simply hold his breath, House quickly smacked a hand over his own mouth to stifle the sounds of the hacking coughs which caused him to double over with their force.

Misery was nothing new to Gregory House and neither really, was fear. He was a man… child, who had spent many years both in misery and in fear. However, much to his dismay, he found, it was never something you got used to and so he felt the force of both emotions rather keenly as he attempted to stand up straight without getting dizzy so he could resume his search of an exit. He had to get out of there before one of those idiotic thugs got back!

Whimpering slightly, he stood again and trudged on. Making his way through the hallways one at a time, taking far more time then he was comfortable with, till he finally reached the front door.

He could see the sun light fragmented through the etched glass window panes of the front door, making rainbow patterns on the floor. It looked to be mid day…

'Must have been gone very near three days' House figured, because there was no way that it was only the next day. His sense of time may have been off but it wasn't that far off and he had been locked in that room for at very least, the entire rest of the week. And even that had felt like months instead of days.

Reaching out tentatively, House grabbed the doorknob, he could feel the freedom, he was very nearly there, his plan had worked out just right but he couldn't help the little butterflies in his stomach. Things very rarely worked out for him. Everything he touched seemed to crumble to dust.

The only think he had ever been good at had been diagnostics and even then, he hadn't been a very good doctor at least not in the entire sense of the word. Sure he was a brilliant diagnostician and he saved lives but he lacked the human skills that made a really truly good doctor. He knew that, even if he tried to pretend like it wasn't actually important. He had to deny it, if he acknowledged it then he would have to face that he wasn't as good a doctor as he could or should be and if he had to do that, his world would fall around his ears… Not that it really mattered now. He couldn't practice anymore anyway. At least not at the moment, and that was his fault too!

He shielded his eyes with one hand as he reached for the door with the other. His eyes weren't used to the light and he had no wish for his head to hurt any more than it already did.

He fumbled for a moment with the knob, his hands were clammy and the tarnished copper seemed to want to slip right through his grip.

Tightening his grip as much as his shaking body would allow, House finally managed to get the knob to turn and he quickly yanked the door open.

He stepped out into the cool air and shivered a little bit. Removing his hand from where it shaded his eyes, he kept his head down instead so he could use both hands to pull at his sleeves in hopes of some warmth.

Not wanting to waste anytime and thus push his luck, he picked up his pace a bit as he headed down to the street. He wanted to run but there was no way his lungs would support that and he knew it.

His eyes finally adjusting to the sun light, House was able to look up just in time to see a hand holding a blue rag reach out in front of his face from behind him.

The last thing he registered before darkness overtook him was the smell of Ether…


	10. Musings

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, least not till September. I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

A/N: I worked all weekend to get this chapter out to you. I make no promises on when the next chapter will be ready though. Like I said I have been crazy busy! Though reviews help :D the more reviews I get the more I feel like writing!!

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Redux

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Chapter ten- Musings

OoOoOo

Wilson's second attempt with the artist actually yielded a useable result and an APB had been put out shortly after. How accurate it actually was, was any ones guess but at least it didn't look like anything out of a horror flick.

The experience had left the child exhausted and on edge wanting nothing to do with anyone but Cuddy whom he clung to like a drowning man to a life raft.

If Cuddy was completely honest she would have to say she was almost glad that Wilson had chosen to cling to her as the entire ordeal had left her feeling less then stellar and with House missing she really didn't feel all that comfortable having the other little boy out of her sights.

At the moment Wilson was curled up next to her on the bed. Cuddy was talking to one of the cops who had stopped by to talk to her about the possibilities of a press conference. Sometimes appealing to the public was a good way to get a missing child back, especially if the people who were planning on purchasing House were to see it. If they were simply parents that desperately wanted a child and not hardened criminals, it might appeal to that parental instinct and hopefully not wanting another parent to suffer they would come forward with the child.

The chances, of course, were slim, but it had happened before and it was better than the nothing they could be doing instead.

Still, Cuddy wasn't so sure it was something they should do. It would be bringing very unwanted attention onto House and Wilson and their unique situation. As of yet not even their parents knew they had been downsized and for the moment they had all agreed they wanted to keep it that way.

Who knew what would happen if it got out who House really was and how he had gotten to be the size that he was. Information like that getting out might make it much harder to find him, after all if who ever had him figured out that they had the famous Doctor Gregory House, they may decide to keep him or even ask for ransom thus making a sticky situation even stickier.

Not to mention that Greg would never forgive her if she managed to make his situation public. He didn't want anyone to know he was now an 8 year old.

The fall out of that would be terrible. And they would have to answer all sorts of questions on how they had ended up as children and the hospital would have to make its research public way before they were ready. All the reasons they had chosen to keep the de aging a secret were still very valid and to have to deal with that on top of House being missing was all too much for Lisa to deal with.

Taking all that into consideration, Lisa had a lot to think about as far as ends justifying the means, before agreeing to go along with a press conference.

Jimmy was watching them through slitted eyes, his head in Lisa's lap while he listened to House's iPod. That was a trick that Forman had figured out the night before. Wilson seemed to calm down immeasurably by being allowed to listen to some of House's favorite songs, it also probably helped to cling to one of House's favorite material objects. Like a security blanket in electronic form.

Wilson cradled the thing possessively to his chest as he let it play through House's rather eclectic collection of music.

It was a physical connection to House and it soothed him. He missed House so much it hurt and he could never remember a time he had felt so scared before. Not even when Amber was lying on her death bed. Though that had been scary in and of itself in a similar yet completely different way, he couldn't remember if it had felt nearly this bad.

Maybe his regressed emotions had a part in making this feel so much worse, or maybe the person who he was scared for did. He wasn't sure which but if it was the latter then Wilson was more screwed up then anyone could have guessed given what he had done when Amber was dying.

Those were feelings he wasn't so sure he wanted to contemplate at the moment. After all, this was the person who he had asked to risk his life to save Amber's, and thinking back on that made Wilson's heart ache.

Being only 6 years old he simply could not reconcile the fact that he had asked such a thing of anyone let alone someone who he had claimed was his best friend, nor could he reconcile the fact that House had actually done it. Or maybe being 6 had nothing to do with his inability to reconcile it, maybe it was something wholly un- reconcilable not matter what age he was at, something completely unacceptable.

Thinking on it now made his chest throb unpleasantly. House had loved him enough to risk his life to save someone he cared about, someone it seemed he cared about more than House. And House had thought so little of himself and his own worth that he thought his life was worth less then that persons, and Jimmy had gone and let him think that. Then he had gone on and abandoned him...

After he had risked his life for Wilson, he had up and left him telling him they weren't friends… never had been friends…

Even after all of that House had willingly accepted Wilson back into his life, had actually been glad and relieved to have him back, though James couldn't imagine why after he had treated him in such a way.

Did House really think so little of himself, to think he was dispensable? Not to mention wanting people in his life so badly when it seemed they to thought he was dispensable.

House should have hated him for the way he treated him but he didn't, he still loved him and wanted him so badly in his life he had hired a private I to get him back.

Wilson shook his head not wanting to remember the memories that were forcing their way back into his brain.

Jimmy did love House, but he had gone and hurt him in unimaginable ways. He wasn't so sure why now of all times was the first time he had realized just exactly what it was he had done.

Pain and anguish of a completely different type then he had been feeling the last few days bubbled up inside of him and his body began to shake as he tried to repress sobs that were trying to spring free from him.

It was a losing battle, Jimmy didn't think he would have been able to hold the sobs back at 36 let alone at 6 and so, seemingly out of the blue to those watching him, Wilson began to sob.

OoOoOo

House woke up an undeterminable amount of time later in what seemed to him to be the trunk of a car. A tiny beam of light made its way through the seam, were lid met car and House could feel the vehicle moving. The bouncing of the car was making him feel rather nauseous… well more so then he had been feeling previously that is.

House let out a little groan. His head was killing him and he couldn't help but think there were much quicker ways to go about killing a person then starving, freezing, and drugging them. Then again he had already come to the conclusion that his captors were idiots. If they were trying to keep him alive and healthy to sell they were doing a piss poor job of it and if they were indeed trying to kill him they were doing an even more piss poor job of it.

The absurdity of the situation in which House found himself, yet again, made him want to laugh. But laughing was a bad idea, it hurt and so he groaned again.

Covering his mouth with his hand, House strived to be quiet. He wasn't so sure alerting his captors to his state of wakefulness was such a good idea.

Biting his bottom lip he felt around the inside of the trunk for the interior release praying that this model and year of car had one. His heart sank as he found that it did not.

He curled up into a small ball and sniffled a little bit. He wondered if Wilson was ok… had the runt made it back to the hospital alright?

Were they looking for him?

He couldn't imagine they would be. They should all be relieved that he was gone. He was always nothing but trouble and people never let him forget what grief he caused. Where they relieved he was gone? That he was now someone else's problem?

He rubbed at his eyes which were watering annoyingly. It wasn't tears. House assured himself, his eyes were simply red and watery from being sick!

House couldn't say he blamed them. He was a royal pain in the ass. Wilson had made it clear a few months earlier that he didn't even want to be friends. It was only because House was so pathetic that he had even come back. The sick thing was, even after the way Wilson had treated him he had been glad... relieved to have him back in his life.

The boy would be relieved now though he supposed, not to have to worry about House anymore. He could be someone else's problem now. Some other person could deal with taking care of House because Wilson knew better than most, that House seemed incapable of taking care of himself.

He brought grief where ever he went, he was aware of that. It was almost funny to him that someone was going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on him. He wondered if there was some sort of return policy. Some sort of money back grantee.

These people would be very, very sorry for having gotten a child through the black market. House had a way of making people who got involved with him very sorry for having done so.

Heck it was his own fault he was even in this mess, not only was it his stupidity that had caused Jimmy and him to be de aged but it was him that had talked Jimmy into going to the park when they had been told not to. He had no one to blame for this mess but himself and he knew it.

House was startled out of his self deprecating thoughts when the car stopped suddenly sending him jerking about in the small space.

He could hear the muffled voices of his captors but couldn't make out what they were saying other then the voices where getting closer. This was conformed a moment later when the trunk was jerked open and he was face to face with Nigel.

Two large hands reached in and grabbed him by his arms yanking him out of the trunk.

"Time to meet your new mummy and daddy." Nigel said in a way that made House's skin crawl.

Grabbing House tightly by the bicep, Nigel dragged him away from the car they had come in and over to where Thomas was standing with two other people.

The woman was petite with an olive complexion, bright, large brown eyes and short brown hair. She was wearing a handsome pants suit. She looked very professional and friendly enough.

The man, though, gave House a bit of pause. He stood tall, his blue eyes piercing, broad shoulders held up straight, looking every inch the ex marine he was. His dark hair showed the beginning of receding and was cropped very short.

House looked at the man and frowned. Taking in a deep breath that caused him to cough, he sized him up. He hadn't let John House intimidate him; there was no way he was going to let this man do so now.

"His dippady do doesn't work so I have to suffer!" House snarked turning his nose up a bit in defiance.

The man didn't so much as crack a smile but it was apparent to House that he was just barely holding one back, his blue eyes were sparkling with restrained mirth. That confused House, most adults he knew, at least the ex marines, and House was observant enough to know this man was ex military, would have knocked him one for such a comment. Not that that ever stopped him from making them though.

The man merely reached out and pulled House close to him and out of Nigel and Thomas' reach before turning to his wife and saying...

"He's a fine boy, isn't he Now…"


	11. Inner Child

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, least not till September. I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

A/N: I can't believe I was able to crank this one out... even with the lack of reiviews for the last chapter ((pouts at you all)) Also at this point I am taking suggestions for future chapters as I am not 100% sure of exactly what I want to do in the coming chapters... please read and review and giving me any suggestions you may have

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Redux

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Chapter eleven- Inner Child

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"He's a fine boy, isn't he Now…"

House looked up at the man like he was crazy… A fine boy? Was this man nuts? House didn't even need to take complete inventory of himself to know he was anything but 'a fine boy' he was skinny, pale, sick not to mention bruised, and hadn't he just insulted the man?? It would be just his luck to get stuck with the crazies!

House was so lost in trying to make sense of this man's insanity that the sudden presence of drawn guns startled him nearly out of his mind. He hadn't seen the men surround his kidnappers nor had he seen the man pull out a gun, right away. He was taken completely off guard when the woman pulled him to her and out of the line of fire and his hands went to his ears as he nearly jumped out of his skin when a gun went off, the explosion of bullet from barrel so loud and close to him he barely suppressed the urge to scream like a little girl. He had to remind himself once more that he was not Wilson!

It all seemed to go in slow motion to House, but he supposed it happened all in the spans of less than a minute. The gun went off and both abductors were tackled shortly after by the two detectives that had come running at what House now assumed was the key phrase as opposed to the man actually commenting on him.

Both Thomas and Nigel were quickly led off in cuffs, Nigel bleeding from a wound to his shoulder where the bullet had clipped him forcing him to drop the gun that he had pulled on the officers.

The two people, who House now supposed were detectives, lead him over to their car where the women knelt down eye level with him. Putting a gentle hand on his cheek she checks him over taking in the worst of the damage.

"You're safe now." She assured him running a thumb gently across his bruised cheek. "I'm Detective Olivia Benson and this is my partner Detective Eliot Stabler." She introduces cocking her head towards Stabler when introducing him "You must be Gregory." She states, even with the bruises and swelling to his face she would recognize the child from the photo's plastered all over number one Police plaza, anywhere. "There are a lot of people very worried about and looking very hard for you. You are very much missed and wanted back at home." She told the child.

"Your mother and brother will be very happy we have found you. They have been calling the station nonstop since you were taken." She added with a reassuring smile, hoping that news of his family and their search for him would comfort him a bit until they could finally be reunited.

Mother and brother???

Oh… oh she must mean Cuddy and Wilson…

Wait… Looking for him? They were looking for him?? Really!! House felt almost light headed and choked up. They were looking for him… did that mean they wanted him home??? Home… he could go home, he was wanted home. The idea was almost too hard for him to process.

"Hey El…" Olivia started looking up at her partner with concerned eyes.

"Yeah?" He asked as he hung up his cell phone. He had quickly called Cragen to let him know that Fin and Munch were escorting the kidnappers down to booking.

"I think we should have him taken to the Hospital, he is burning up." She informed him. It was standard protocol to have victims checked out by EMT's that were on call to them when on a bust but by the look of the child and the heat radiating off of him Olivia definitely thought a trip to the hospital would be in order.

"NO!" House screamed before Eliot even has a chance to open his mouth to answer.

It has been a miserable few days for House who, despite his regressed emotions, had tried his best to be an adult and not break down under the incredible emotional and physical strain. He was coming to the end of his tether and he had never been a good patient to begin with. The thought of going to a hospital that was not his and being examined by doctors he did not know was, at this point, too much for him to handle.

He was fighting with all of his might not to give into the childish emotions, now that he was relatively safe all the fear and anxiety were bubbling to the surface and he had an irrational need, or perhaps, rather rational given the circumstances, to be back at PPTH. He felt a brake down coming, and coming fast and he didn't want to have it in a strange place with strange people, he just wanted to go home!

Both detectives looked at him, shocked by the sudden and rather loud outburst.

It was Eliot who came to his senses first. Having raised 5 children, heck he was still raising 5 children, he knew how to deal with them. Talking a child, who didn't want to do something medically pertinent into doing so, was not something new to the man.

Kneeling down eye level in front of House right next to Olivia, who was still kneeling before the child, He looked straight into his eyes.

"I know Hospitals stink, they aren't any fun, and really who wants all those sterile people in white coats poking at you with gloved hands and cold or pointy objects? But you are apparently hurt and sick so there is no better place for you to be so that you can get all fixed up." The paternal detective spoke to the boy at what he hoped was right on his level. He genuinely strived not to speak down to or at a child, they were too smart for that and were often demeaned or angered at being talked to as if they were stupid, which Eliot knew, many adults did. It was why children so often didn't listen to the adults around them.

Being a doctor himself, House knew that right now he belonged in a hospital. Regressed or not, he wasn't stupid, and even though he hated being a patient with a passion he knew right now if he didn't get medical help he could develop serious issues. He was rather sick and he still needed his concussion checked out not to mention any other injuries being knocked around by those two oafs had caused. However, he didn't want to, and wouldn't willingly go to any hospital other than PPTH.

He had no idea where it was that he had been taken too or how far from home he actually was, but he didn't care. He was too emotionally stressed out to deal with more strangers. And though he wouldn't admit it, he just wanted to go home!!! He wanted Wilson and he wanted Cuddy!!

"I want to go to Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital." he told them matter of factley.

The two detectives exchanged looks. Not only had they never had a child request what hospital they wanted to be taken too, that was a rather odd and specific hospital to request, not to mention rather far away, neither of them could imagine why it was he wanted to be taken there.

"Princeton-Plainsboro is over an hour away, we need to take you some place local and have you checked out right away." Olivia tried to reason with him.

"No!! I only want to go there!! My… My mom works there!" he improvised and really for intents and purposes, not to mention legal wise, Cuddy really was technically his mother.

"We will call your mom and she can meet us at the local hospital." Eliot tried.

"NONONO!!" House cried getting frustrated. He was tired and cranky and over all over emotional which was all wearing down the adult part of his brain, which had thus far fought to keep in control, and allowing the child that had been ever increasingly clawing its way to the surface, through.

"I don't want to go to any other hospital. I don't want anyone else to examine me. I don't want to I don't want to, I DON'T WANT TO!!! I want to go h-home!!" Even House would admit, later, that he was having a tantrum but he just didn't care. It was all far too much for him to handle and if he were truthful he would admit that tantrums weren't something he was immune to throwing even as an adult. Though this one was entirely more childishly executed then those of his adult years.

He rubbed the heels of his hands over his wet tired eyes, trying to manually squash the tears; that to his utter horror, were threatening to fall.

Both detectives knew they couldn't and shouldn't force medical treatment on a child especially one who had already been so traumatized, but at the same time they knew that they had to get him checked out and really what would another hour hurt. The child, after all, was agreeing to being checked out, he was just very specific on where he was willing to do it.

They really couldn't blame him, he was already so overwhelmed that the thought of more strange adults and ones that were going to be very much in his personal space, was probably far too much for the little boy to deal with. But familiar surroundings and adults that could examine and take care of him was probably exactly what the doctor ordered… pun and all.

Olivia reached around and started to rub House's back to try and calm him. Exchanging looks with her partner they both nodded, thinking the same thing.

"I'll drive. You sit in the back with Greg." Eliot told her.

"I'll call Cragen from the road." Olivia said with a nod and she opened the back door to their car and helped House in, fastening his seat belt before walking around the car and getting in the other door. Sitting in the middle so she could sit closer to the child, she fastened the middle lap belt around herself and they waited for Eliot to get in the driver's seat.

It was early evening and rush hour traffic was in full throng and it seemed that they were getting no place rather fast. Olivia took a few moments to call the captain and tell him what they were doing and Cragen in turn called to let Cuddy know that her child had been found safe and was on his way to be returned to her.

OoOoOo

Cuddly collapsed back into the bed in relief as she hung up the phone.

Wilson, who was curled up next to her, his head in her lap, looked up at her curiously.

She looked down at him and smiled.

"They found him. He is ok." She informed him her voice resonating with the relief she felt, though she wouldn't be completely happy until House was back with them.

Wilson crawled up into her lap and hid his face in her chest letting out a relieved sob. It didn't make any sense to Wilson why he had tears running down his cheeks, but Lisa knew, she understood that it was more than fear, sadness or pain that demanded tears of one's body, but any intense emotion could provoke them. She, herself was fighting back tears of immense relief.

"He will be home soon." She assured him rubbing his back and letting him release his emotions. It had been a very hard few days for the little boy who had still yet to eat or drink a single thing.

She wondered worriedly what kind of shape House was in. The captain had indicated that he was okay, but was he really okay? There was okay as in alive and in one piece and then there was okay as in completely undamaged, and judging by the way Wilson had come home to them she sincerely doubted House had made it several days with those same men unscathed.

Looking down at Jimmy's still bruised jaw and split lip, Cuddy worried. If the man who took House could do that to Wilson in the spans of a few moments what could he have done to House in the days that he had had him?

Suddenly she wanted House home NOW!

Her patients completely gone, she lifted Wilson up and carried him out of the room to the front Lobby to wait.

Wilson, who was clinging to her around her neck, looked up at her curiously till he saw where they were headed. He laid his head back down on her shoulder and relaxed. They were going to wait for House. House was coming home!!!

OoOoOo

A/N: I apologize for my lack of knowledge on how police would handle this situation with House. I did it as accurately as I could but still I am aware that I probably got it wrong. Still the way I did it fit with how I wanted my story to flow so I suppose a little poetic license taken with the legal system is ok given that this is fan-fiction!

A/N: And so everyone knows Detective Eliot Stabler is in fact an ex marine, but I guess you would have to really know Law and Order SVU to catch that bit of foreshadowing.


	12. House Comes Home or It isnt Home without

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, least not till September. I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long, life has been kicking my butt!

A/N 2: yeah yeah I know this is mega short and I apologize but like I said life and all that, and I just wanted to get something out there already. I hope more will come soon I have the ideas, just no time to write them!

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Redux

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Chapter twelve- House Comes Home

Or

It Isn't Home Without House

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House was tired and cranky and just wanted to go home!! The traffic that had held them up so long was finally beginning to dissipate just as the sun was beginning to set, but House was impatient and couldn't get comfortable in the car…

The belt seemed too tight, Detective Benson seemed to close, her perfume seemed to strong and the car seemed to be going to slow and to fast all at the same time, both getting him home too slow and going so fast it was making him car sick! That dichotomy, to House, seemed exceedingly unfair!

He stared groggily out the window but watching the scenery zip by was making his eyes hurt so he closed them.

He woke up some time later from Olivia's hand gently rubbing his back and her voice softly urging him to open his eyes.

They were parked in the ambulance bay of the hospital and House couldn't help the fluttery feeling in his chest and stomach at the familiar sight. If he wasn't so drained he may have jumped out of the car and gone running in. As it was it took a great deal of his strength to just undo his seat belt.

OoOoOo

Wilson sat in Cuddy's lap in one of the waiting chairs in the clinic his head resting on her chest. He was sleepy and not feeling quite up to par. Maybe going on a hunger strike till House got back had not been one of his best ideas, now he could barely stay awake to greet him and was feeling too ill to spend any kind of quality time with the other boy.

Lisa watched the front doors unblinking, a hand absentmindedly rubbing circles in Jimmy's back. She was sitting in the clinic chair closest to the doors to keep an eye. She would have stayed in the front lobby but Wilson was getting a bit heavy to carry for so long yet was too sick to make stand.

She would have missed the tall broad shouldered man, carrying the little boy in if she had not seen Brenda point right at her when the man had approached, apparently asking where he could find Lisa Cuddy.

With his face hidden in Stabler's shoulder, Cuddy couldn't really see anything wrong other then House must have been completely exhausted to allow someone to carry him.

She rose to her feet sitting Wilson in the chair before rushing over to meet them.

Wilson looked most affronted at this and so, despite his own exhaustion he scrambled to his feet and scampered over, behind Lisa.

"You must be the detectives that found Greg. You have no idea how relieved I am you found him and have finally brought him home." Lisa said looking from Eliot to Olivia, who had walked in behind him.

Hearing Cuddy's voice House forced his head up and turned his upper body to her, holding his arms out much toddler who wished to be taken from one adult to another would, he looked at her with pleading glassy eyes through a myriad of bruises and gray complexion.

Lisa had to consciously hold back a reaction to the way House looked. Reacting would only upset the child so instead, despite the fact that the boy was a bit bigger then she could comfortably hold, she took him from the detective and allowed him to latch onto her.

She was immediately glad that she had forgone her normal suit, skirt and heels and instead opted for sneakers, t shirt and jeans. House's weight was enough trouble for her back without the added strain of balancing on heels and trying to keep her skirt down.

She was a bit surprised to feel the heat radiating off his small form, and with a raised eyebrow she looked at the detectives questioningly. But before she had a chance to hear their answer to her un asked question she was even more surprised to feel something hot and wet against her neck and she realized, as foreign as the idea was to her, House was crying...


	13. It's Alright to Cry

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but I'm sure David Shore won't miss them, least not till September. I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

A/N: Again I apologize for the long wait. As I explained last chapter, life has been very, very busy for me and I just cannot find all the time I would like, to write. On that note I am looking for a co author in hopes that having some help with this story will make the updates come a bit quicker. If anyone is interested please let me know.

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Redux

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Chapter thirteen- It's alright to cry

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…_she was even more surprised to feel something hot and wet against her neck and she realized, as foreign as the idea was to her… House was crying._

He honestly couldn't say he knew exactly what had come over him, but hearing Cuddy's voice… he just had this overwhelming need to get to her. Everything that followed his reaching out to her seemed out of his control.

All of a sudden all of the emotions and tears he had fought so hard to suppress the last couple of days came rushing to the surface all at once, now that he was safe again.

No matter how he tried to stop them he simply found himself helpless to the tears that were sliding down his cheeks and wetting Cuddy's neck.

It was all too much for him to hold in. Even as an adult he would have had issues coping with what he had just gone through, a few extra Vicodin and half a bottle of scotch would have been downed in order to keep the emotions at bay. Without those being an option clinging to Cuddy and sobbing into her neck seemed to be the only thing for it.

Lisa wrapped her arms tighter around the sobbing little boy. She herself was barely holding back tears of relief. She was just so glad to have him back safe and somewhat sound in her arms. Sure he seemed a little worse for wear but he was alive and she was certain all the rest of it wasn't anything they couldn't help him with.

He was sick but she was a doctor, he was scared but she had the maternal instincts to match any fear…

She felt a small hand pull on the side of her shirt and she looked down to see the tear stained face of Wilson. Juggling House so he was resting on her hip she freed a hand to lay reassuringly on Jimmy's head.

Wilson's tiny body was shaking as well, he was exhausted and his body was depleted not to mention he wanted to get to House. He had an overwhelming need to be near him, to make sure he was real and not going to disappear again.

Lisa had to swallow a sigh, there was no way she could deal with all this emotion and clinginess in the middle of the hospital lobby and she still needed to find out what in the world had happened to her little boy…

Wait, her little boy? Where had that come from?

She shook her head a bit to clear it…

She had to find out from the detectives what happened to House while those monsters had him. He was burning up and beaten up to boot.

"I need to get him into a bed and checked out, why don't, we take this to the room I have set aside." Lisa told the detectives. She didn't want to explain that it was where the boy's lived at the moment. She had no desire to get into who these boys really were.

Benson and Stabler both nodded so Cuddy, taking Wilson's hand and still carrying House, lead the way to the room with the detectives following behind.

On her way past the nurse's station, Cuddy told one of the nurses to bring a banana bag and two meals down to the boys' room before heading on her way.

A few hallways and an elevator ride later, they arrived in the room and Cuddy was relieved to be able to lay House down, he had gotten a bit too heavy.

House on the other hand was none too keen to let Cuddy go and he clung tightly around her neck.

"Shhh…" She soothed. "I am just going to get you some clean, warm pajamas to change into. I'll be right back." She assured and House reluctantly let go, rolling over to hide his tears stained face in his pillow. She rubbed his back a moment before heading over to the dresser and grabbing out a pair of thick flannel pajamas.

Detective Stabler gave her an odd look and Cuddy gave him a smile "I brought these here in anticipation of Greg coming home. Not to mention that I had to admit James two days ago because he refused to eat, thus the reason we have this room and their stuff here for them." She lied rather flawlessly. And Stabler seemed to buy it, it seemed plausible enough. Detective or not, every now and then someone managed to get one passed him.

Wilson in the mean time had crawled onto the bed next to House and was curled up next to him snuggling into the older boy. House had rolled over to face Wilson so that he could to cling to the younger boy just as Wilson was clinging to him. Lisa had to stop for a moment and just watch the two her heart warming at the sight.

Stepping over she detangled the two boys from each other, though she hated to do it, and lifted House up to bring him to the bathroom to change. She wanted him to keep some of his dignity; after all he had been through she was sure he needed all he could get.

Sitting on the toilet, Lisa stood House on wobbly legs. He had to put a hand on each of her arms to keep upright as she stripped him out of his clothing, gently running a cool wet washcloth over his body to clean and cool him before changing him into the warm pants and shirt pajama set, the ones that were dark blue with colorful motorcycles printed all over them.

House felt so cold that the nice thick fabric was a relief, but really he wanted nothing more than to crawl under the covers of his bed, preferably with Cuddy staying within reach. The bed would make for a nice change from the hard cold floor of his little cell.

House clung tightly to her as she carried him back out into the room, hiding his face in her neck hot wet tears still slipping down his cheeks

It was a testament to how effected House was by his entire ordeal, that he didn't protest or make a single snarky or sexual comment about any of Cuddy's ministrations. While once upon a time Cuddy would have welcomed this, even prayed for it a time or two, right now she would have given anything to see, or hear, some of that old House bratty spark.

Carrying House back out into the room she lay him back on his bed feeling slightly bad that she had to usher Wilson off and out of the way but his presence was making it harder for her to check House out.

She made a brief call to Forman to let him know that House was back and that he should let the others know and also to ask him to come down and help get Wilson ready for bed while she dealt with House. Forman agreed and 5 minutes later a very relieved Forman was in the room trying to pry Wilson away from House's bedside.

The child cried and fussed as Forman tried to usher him into the bathroom for his bath and a change of pajamas.

With an exasperated sigh Forman simply lifted the protesting boy up to carry him to the bathroom. He was completely shocked to feel the unmistakable bite of a gap tooth kid. Forman nearly dropped him as he tried to dislodge the fleshy part of his upper arm from between a set of surprisingly strong, 6 year old jaws.

Wilson wasn't having any of it and he kept his jaws clamped painfully tight despite Forman's frantic efforts to get him to release.

Forman could only explain his shocking reaction as a frantic last ditch effort to persuade Wilson not to bite off a chunk of his arm but even so when his free hand reared back and landed a rather hefty swat to the seat of Wilson's thinly, pajama clad bottom, he was nearly as shocked as the child who immediately released the doctors arm from his teeth to let out an anguished sob.

Forman looked around the hospital room in a frantic way his eyes darting from Cuddy to the detectives, his face actually showing a bit of a blush in embarrassment for his impulsive action and his eyes settled warily on the detectives waiting for one of them to come slap a pair of handcuffs on him and arrest him for child abuse, but what he saw on their faces was a look of understanding. Elliot even gave him a reassuring smile, the father of 5 was positive he would have done the same thing if Dickey, or any of his girls for that matter, had ever had the gall to bite him like that.

Wilson sobbed in pure shock and dismay at the mighty sting that exploded across his tiny tail. He looked at Forman wide eyed for a brief moment before diving into the crook of the man's neck to sob some more.

Forman sighed and patted the heaving little back "Please excuse us for a bit we will be back after a bath and change of pajamas." He said grabbing a fresh, clean pair of pajamas from the dresser as he passed it on the way to the bathroom.

Sitting on the toilet seat, Forman placed the still crying child on the floor in front of him and proceeded to get him ready for his bath.

Once he was free from his shirt which had bunched around him when he struggled somewhat binding him, Jimmy reached back to rub his smacked tush.

"Th-That hur-hurted!" He informed Forman accusingly.

"So did your bite" Forman shot back with a raised eyebrow.

Wilson looked down at that and hung his head the adult memories in his brain telling him to be ashamed of such naughty, childish actions.

"`m sorry." he mumbled to the floor.

Forman cupped his chin forcing the little boy to look up at him "I understand it has been an emotional few days and that you want to be with House but right now you needed to be cooperative and let Cuddy take care of him without getting in the way, your little fit was unacceptable as well as counterproductive and it is never ok to bite." He scolded the little one in a paternal way he didn't know he was capable of.

"IM SORRY!!" The words were sobbed out loudly this time accompanied by copious amounts of tears, shaking shoulders and a heaving back.

Forman felt his anger nearly completely evaporate at the child's heartfelt cry of apology and the utter vulnerability it implied. He reached out, and lifting James from underneath his arms, he placed him gently in his lap.

"Okay… It's okay." He soothed rubbing the child's bare back "You are forgiven." he assured as he continued to get Wilson to calm down.

Wilson hid his face in Forman's chest and sobbed out the last of his tears, the truth was his bottom didn't even hurt anymore but he was still over emotional and he hated that he couldn't seem to control it.

When Wilson's sobs stopped, Forman pulled him back from his chest a bit and looked him in the eyes. "Okay?" he asked and the little one gave him a small nod. "Ready for your bath then? The sooner you get in the sooner you can get out and back to House." he informed.

Wilson nodded again giving a mighty sniffle, running an arm across his wet, sticky face.

Forman gave him a smile and set him back on his own two feet to finish getting him ready for his bath.

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Cuddy sighed as she finished looking House over. He was bruised all over his face and the one on his neck made her feel physically sick to look at, only one thing could cause a bruise like that and she just didn't want to think about it.

His fever was high at 102.6 and she had just sent a sample of blood to the lab. Chase had picked it up himself and said he would run all, the test immediately even if it took him all night to complete.

She could see the guilt in young doctor's eyes and could understand its presence completely. She wanted to tell him not to feel guilty but she couldn't bring herself to form the words. Part of her still blamed him even though she knew she shouldn't really.

The nurse had brought the requested banana bag and meals and Lisa had, gently as she could, inserted the IV with the banana bag into House's arm. Pulling the tray in front of the bed she attempted to get him to eat a bit of one of the meals as well, placing the second meal on the table to Jimmy. But House was utterly uninterested in food. He simply wriggled himself closer to where she was sitting on his bed till he was curled up against her side.

Lisa gave him a reassuring smile as she corded her fingers through his hair, massaging his scalp soothingly with the pads of her fingers.

"We will try again a little later with some soup okay?" She asked House, who seemed to be fighting to keep his eyes open. Even though the nurse had brought a rather light meal of backed chicken and white rice, knowing that Jimmy and most likely House, had not eaten in days and would need something a bit bland and easy on the stomach, the child still couldn't bring himself to eat it and Lisa hoped soup would be a bit more palatable.

"Kay." He agreed, more readily then Cuddy had ever known House to agree to anything, as he leaned up into her fingers a bit, comforted by the loving, gentle contact.

A wet headed, drowsy looking Wilson came out of the bathroom moments later, escorted by Forman and Cuddy pointed them to the table where the plate of white rice and backed chicken waited for Wilson's consumption.

It was only 6 in the evening but both boys were exhausted.

"I'm afraid you are most likely not going to get any answers from ether of them at the moment." Cuddy told the detectives.

"That's okay. We completely understand." Olivia assured "We will come back tomorrow to see if either of them are up to talking." She said with a smile. Now that they had the suspects in custody they would have to talk both House and Wilson about the event of the night House was taken and then of course, to House about what had happened while they had, had him. It wouldn't be a pleasant conversation for any of the parties involved but it was something that had to be done.

"Thank you." Lisa said as she walked to two detectives to the door of the hospital room. "Can you find your way back to the lobby or should I take you?" She asked looking from the detectives back to House who had given a whimper when she had left his side.

"We can find our way out, thank you." Elliot said and nodded a goodbye as he followed Olivia down the hall to the elevator.

Going back to House, Lisa lied down next to him on the bed and gathered him in her arms where he snuggled up to her gratefully. It was very un House like but Cuddy wouldn't question his need for comfort.

A small smile played on her lips as she looked over at the table where Wilson was sitting in Forman's lap being fed. Forman had pulled him into his lap and started to feed the young boy when he had nearly done a face plant in his plate, having fallen asleep while eating. Lisa pointed the scene out to House who rewarded her with a small smile of his own before snuggling back down into her.

Lisa sighed, this was going to be a hard one to come back from but with all the people that cared about the boys helping out she was sure they could all heal. After all, they were healers.


	14. Revelations

Disclaimer: I don't own them I simply borrow them to play with, I didn't ask but what David Shore doesn't know won't hurt him. I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. I make no money from this so please, no suing the poor college student!

A/N: I may have very well lost my mind, I have worked over 200 hours in the last 3 weeks and that's not including the fact that I started school again! Again I put out the request for a co author, or just someone to help a little, if anyone is interested please let me know.

I would also like to apologize for not responding to reviews last chapter, I really wanted to and I had planned to but my life wasn't allowing it so I would like to do a big group thanks for the reviews, they mean so much to me, and promise to do better this chapter with getting back to you individually.

Wanted to get this out weeks ago when I first started it, it just wasn't gunna happen, Sowwies everyone.

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Redux

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Chapter fourteen- Revelations

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The night was one of the longest the doctors could ever remember experiencing.

Cameron and Thirteen had stayed to help Chase run the tests on House's blood while Kutner switched on and off with Forman and Cuddy taking turns waking House up every hour or so to monitor his concussion and check his fever.

Around 3 am his fever spiked to 106.5 and began to quickly rise soon after. Even with the IV fluids they had been pumping into him since he got back, House was still too dehydrated to fight off the fever. Dehydration meant no sweat which meant the body could not cool itself off, there was no way for House's body to lower its own fever!

Being as quiet as they could, as to not wake the sleeping Wilson, there was no need to worry the child who had spent the last few days sick with it, even further, Forman lifted House out of his bed and carried him to a room down the hall. By this point the child was nearly delirious moaning nonsensical things as he was moved, the tiny body so hot next to his, Forman could barely hold him for the heat.

Forman carried him to an empty clean room with a large bath in the middle. The room was rather small so the tub dominated the space and the gurney, which was in place of a bed, seemed to take up most of the rest of the room.

Placing House on the gurney he started to fill the bath with cool water. As the tub filled with water he called both Cuddy and Kutner to bring him a few needed items both of whom arrived a few minutes later, just as the tub had completely filled, with their requested items. Kutner carried two bags of ice while Cuddy carried extra blankets, towels and clean pajamas for House.

As Kutner poured the ice into the cool water while Forman stripped House down to his underwear. Lifting him back up he carried him over to the tub and started to place him gently in.

As soon as the first bit of him touched the icy water House's eyes popped open wide. He looked at Forman unseeingly and began to kick and cry.

"NO DADDY!! Please!! Not the ice bath again please I'll be a good boy!!" the delirious child wailed.

Forman could actually feel his heart break not only at the little boy's plea but at what the plea implied and he almost stopped right then and there.

Forman knew ice baths were a bit out dated and could be dangerous but desperate times called for desperate measures. House's temperature was not responding to the meds he had been given and at the moment it was the less of two evils, either they gave him the ice bath and risked shock or allowed the fever to fry the child's brain. They were well equipped in the hospital to handle shock, a fried brain was irreversible. The decision was a no brainer even if it wasn't an easy one.

So, hardening his heart, knowing what he was doing was necessary, Forman continued to slowly lower the begging child into the tub.

House cried and thrashed a little in the tub "Please Daddy please I didn't mean to be bad!! I'm sorry!! Please let me out!!"

Forman looked back at Cuddy and Kutner for help. Kutner looked sick and Cuddy had tears in her eyes. She quickly ran to the side of the tub and knelt down by it.

"Shhh Greg, it's ok, you're a good boy, a very good boy." She cooed to him as she stroked his head soothingly.

"Mommy!!' House's voice sounded hopeful if scared and pleading "Please mommy I didn't mean to make daddy mad again!!" lost in the fever induced memory he was begging for his mommy to save him from his father's abuse and tears rolled down Lisa's face as she wondered how many times in his childhood House had begged his mom to simply protect him.

"Greg," She crooned "It's ok Greg, no one is mad at you I promise, you aren't being punished sweet heart, you are sick and we are trying to make you better. Please calm down you won't be in there much longer I promise." She said her voice choked with tears.

"It's c-cold." He whimpered turning glassy, pleading blue eyes at her.

"I know baby, I know." She commiserated. She would never have dared talk like this to House under normal circumstances but these were in no way normal!

Forman approached with a digital, ear, thermometer and quickly took House's temperature and Cuddy looked up at him expectantly as he read the reading. He shook his head sadly at her. His fever was still too high. He turned the thermometer to her so she could read that the digital screen said 105.8.

"We have to get it down at least 1 more degree." Forman told her and she nodded in agreement going back to comforting House as best she could and Kutner scooped out a good portion of the ice to make the water a bit more bearable.

Forman didn't wait long to take his temperature again and this time when the reading said 103.9 he quickly grabbed a towel and scooped House out of the water. Though the fever was still incredibly high they could use other means to lower his fever down the rest of the way now that he was not longer in the seizure danger zone.

House clung to Forman's chest laying his head against his shoulder desperate for comfort which Forman was finding him-self unable to deny. He rubbed the distraught child's back holding him tightly to his chest before moving his hand from the boys back and rubbing the towel to dry him.

Laying the miserable boy down on the gurney he extracted himself from his grips and thought for a moment wondering if House would be to mortified if he changed him, he knew Cuddy had already seen him naked and contemplated if it would be a better idea to let her take over. When a small hand reached out and grabbed for his, holding it tight, it made the decision for him.

He looked back at Cuddy and Kutner and gave them a nod "I've got it from here." He told them. Both doctors understanding what Forman was getting at, retreated back to the hospital room to check on Wilson.

Forman waited till they were both gone before peeling off the cold wet briefs keeping his eyes locked with House's the entire time not only to offer him what little comfort he could during this uncomfortable process but also as if to prove he wasn't looking where he oughtn't look hoping he would minimize embarrassment that way.

Reaching deftly he picked up the clean underpants and pajamas from the pile Cuddy had brought and, making sure he was holding them the right way, slipped them on the child without even looking. Only then did he look away from House's face, only to make sure he had indeed put the briefs on right. He then proceeded to put clean pajamas on him before wrapping him in one of the spare blankets and lifting him up off the cot to hold him tight to his chest once more.

House buried his face in Forman's neck stuck some place half between the horrid memory and reality.

"Your okay," Forman assured rubbing the still shaking back as he made his way out of the small room and back to House's room.

He was relieved to see the Wilson was still fast asleep and there would be no heartbroken, anxious question to answer. Laying House back down on his bed he set about re attaching the IV he had taken out before the ice bath. Tucking him back in he gently rubbed his stomach to lull him to sleep, his stomach feeling sick, his chest tight from the revelations that had been forced on him that night.

When he was sure the child was asleep he took a seat next to Cuddy and Kutner who were half asleep in large padded chairs that had been brought into the room for them and let his own eyes drift a bit. Cameron would be in, in a little bit anyway with the first round of results so it couldn't hurt to catch 15 minutes of shut eye…

A little while later Chase walked into the room to find the other three doctors and two children sleeping, he walked over to House's bed and looked down at him for a few moments before kneeling by the sleeping child's bedside and taking a tiny hand in his.

So much guilt flowed through his veins as he held himself responsible for what had happened. It was all, his fault, he should have made sure they were safe, should have called Cuddy, Cameron, anyone when he knew he was going to be running late. All he had had to do was tell one of the nurses in the operating room to relay a message or to even check on the children themselves. Just because he couldn't leave didn't mean someone else in the operating room couldn't have at least used the phone in the operating room to get a message out. But he hadn't thought of that, he had let himself forget that House and Wilson were only children, vulnerable children! He knew if it had been any other children he wouldn't have forgotten like he had, would have taken better care, but because one of the children was House, a name he would never couple with vulnerable, he had let it slip, he had not taken care of him as any child should have been taken care of and he wasn't sure he would ever be able to forgive himself for it.

"I am so sorry Greg." He whispered as the boy slumbered "I am so sorry I didn't take better care of you." Tears began to roll down the blond doctor's cheeks, his thumb rubbing small circles in the back of House's hand, an act more to comfort him-self then the sick kid. "God, I never meant for you to get hurt." He bent his head down to rest his forehead on their joined hands. "Please be okay. You can fight this! You're a strong boy, the strongest I have ever met, please be okay." He begged even though he knew House couldn't hear him, and perhaps that was the only reason he could say the things he was saying. "I pray you can forgive this foolish, irresponsible old wombat." He whispered last and then just rested his forehead against their hands, closing his eyes tight and letting his tears drain.

He stayed like that a long time, his head bowed, eyes closed, listening to House's even breathing. He knelt there till his knees were far past sore and his neck and back ached from their bent position, he stayed there until the sky started the lighten with impending day, he stayed there till his beeper started to vibrate in his pocket telling him some of his tests needed to be checked on and that is when he finally rose to his feet. He placed a soft kiss to House's still hot forehead before heading to the door. He was just opening the door when a soft whispered voice stopped him dead in his tracks.

"I forgive you wombat."


	15. Chapter 15

Authors note: I am really sorry about how long it has been… YEARS I know! I have had a hard time of it recently and am just starting to crawl out of the hole I have been living in and finding the joy in life again. After spending years taking care of my mother, she passed away and sent me into quite a state. She was so young and I am not old enough to not need a mother anymore (are we ever?) So things have been hard and slow to get back to livable. I am proud to say I have made some amazing changes in my life and finally realized I am good enough to reach my dreams, so I have taken some bold, if small, steps in the right direction and realized it was time to get back into something I loved and made me happy and also inspired my life and other work. Things are still shaky, but I have just embarked on what I know is going to be the best part of my life! So… for all of you that have so patiently waited, here is another chapter. I hope I didn't lose too many of you in my long absence!

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Redux chapter fifteen

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Cuddy woke the next morning with a stiff neck and sore back, the hospital chairs- though well padded- were far from comfortable, to see Wilson, curled in a tiny ball up close against House who had wrapped the arm not sporting the IV tightly around his clingy little friend.

She smiled fondly, glad to have both her boys back… yeah she had come to the conclusion the night before, as she was settling the children down after the emotional reunion that whether she liked it or not, somewhere along the line, maybe before they had been de-aged even, they had become hers… her boys.

She hadn't realized she had been staring until a noise from the door grabbed her attention. Foreman, holding a tray containing four plates of food two bottles of juice and two large cups of steaming coffee, made his way slowly back into the room. He smiled at Lisa when he saw that she was awake.

"Thought I would get breakfast, hopefully Greg will be feeling up to eating a little something this morning. His fever is still high but it has stayed down since the bath, I am hoping it will break for good soon." Having woken a little over an hour ago the man had, mindful of the second little inhabitant of the bed, checked House over, taking all his vitals.

"Any news from Chase?" She asked, reaching over and snagging one of the coffee cups from the tray as Foreman put it down on the table.

"He said he hasn't found anything too off in the blood, high white blood cell count indicating infection, but we could have guessed that by the fever, I guess no news is good news on the blood work. He was wheezing pretty badly when I checked on him, though we kind of assumed it was a chest infection anyway. I gave him a breathing treatment before I went down to get breakfast and it seemed to help. We just have to give the antibiotics a chance to work." Eric told her.

Lisa simply nodded sighing before taking another sip of coffee knowing high doses of caffeine would be the only thing that would get her through the next few days.

Foreman took a sip of his own hot brew and they sat together in companionable silence for a few moments before Eric put his coffee down and peered between the bed and the dean of medicine, "I want to wake Greg up to see if we can't get some medication and food into him, but he seems to have acquired a barnacle overnight, one that could really use a bit more sleep if at all possible."

"Well," Lisa smiled, a real true smile, over her coffee, at Eric, "If you perform the risky barnacle extraction procedure I will perform the risky Gregory House forced medical treatment procedure," She offered. House was an awful patient, so she figured that was a pretty fair trade, besides she really wanted to stick close to the kid who seemed to really need her right now anyway.

Eric raised an eyebrow, "I really don't feel like getting bitten again," he told her.

"Oh so you'd rather deal with Greg pitching a fit? Besides, if you don't wake him there won't even be a problem on your end." She pointed out with a small smile.

Foreman sighed and shook his head, putting his coffee down he pushed out of the chair quietly and made his way over to the bed the boys were curled up together on. Carefully, Eric performed the risky operation untangling little hands and limbs before scooping the young boy up miraculously without waking him. He celebrated with a mental victory dance as he carried his sleeping charge back to his own bed.

Forman thought he got off easy as he heard Cuddy go about waking House up, that was until he tried to put Wilson down. The little boy had wrapped himself tightly around the man in his sleep and was showing no signs of allowing him to put him down onto his bed.

Lisa looked up and spotted Eric trying to get James off of him without waking him, "Ah," She said fighting back a chuckle, despite her own plight of trying to wake a far from cooperative Gregory House "The real danger of barnacle extraction, cling transfer," she nodded her head seriously.

Eric glared at her without any real rancor and then shook his head sighing. Figuring if he could not beat him he might as well join him, he climbed into the little boy's bed the child snuggled on top of him, still fast asleep.

Watching Cuddy work, it was now Foreman's turn to fight back a chuckle as House was less than agreeable to the entire waking up thing. He whined and smacked at Lisa's hands as she tried to rouse him and ended up cocooned in his blankets, pulled tightly over his head, in effort to hide from 'the administrative bimbo from hell' as he had so affectionately called her.

Pulling at the blanket, Lisa glared up at the other doctor, "You're not going to help me?" She demanded.

Foreman smiled ever so sweetly at her as he gestured with one hand to the sleeping boy situated on his chest, "I did my job, remember?"

"Right," She grumbled giving one last hard tug to the blanket she managed to get it off House, though not without stumbling backwards and nearly landing on her ass for her effort.

Bright, sleepy, blue eyes cracked open at her as their owner reached a hand out wanting its blanket back.

"It's time to wake up," She told him, holding the blanket out of his reach, "After you have something to eat and some medicine you can go back to sleep for a while." She promised him.

With a pout firmly plastered on his face and a long suffering sigh, House opened his eyes and managed to wriggle himself into an upright position, he then seemed no notice something and searched around frantically.

"Hey, shh, its ok" Cuddy assured putting a hand on his little shoulder and pointing over to the other bed, "Foreman just moved him so he wouldn't wake up while I checked you over. We will wake him when it's time to eat and he can come join you again," She assured him, knowing exactly what had upset him.

House nodded, taking in a deep breath which only served to start a nasty bout of hacking. He doubled over as he struggled to breathe through the coughing fit a bit of panic setting in.

Sensing the boys panic, Lisa sat down on the bed next to him and started rubbing his back, trying to sooth him through the attack. His lungs were badly congested; the hacking was of no surprise to any of the doctors. She could tell he was scared by his lack of ability to breathe deeply so she did all she could to comfort the distressed child until his coughing finally died away.

Reaching over to the wall behind her she pulled down a mask attached to a canister on the wall. She fastened the mask around House's head before easing out of the bed and readying the breathing treatment, grateful that Foreman had thought enough in advance to have some on hand in the room after having to administer it earlier. She switched the machine on before sitting back down on the bed.

House immediately wriggled closer to her till their sides were touching.

Cuddy reached an arm around him, pulling him in close to her, knowing House didn't normally show such vulnerability, she made sure not to say anything about it and just allow him to take the comfort he needed without comment, "Deep breaths, Greg, that's it, you'll be ok." She assured, trying not to say too much, trying not to say too little…

House attempted another deep breath, now that he was wearing the mask and getting the medication, but it was hard, every time he tried to breathe more than just little shallow breaths his entire chest felt tickly and he had to cough. This time was no exception and despite the mask and breathing treatment, House broke out into another coughing fit, deep wet coughs from all the way down in his chest, the kind that hurt just to listen to.

On the other bed, startled awake by the loud, hacking of his friend, Wilson blinked wide scared eyes and tried to orient himself. Jumping up he nearly rolled right off Foreman's chest and would have had the man not quickly wrapped arms around him.

"House?" the small voice called out, combined struggling arms and legs.

"Jimmy, calm down, everything's ok," Foreman tried to assure without receiving a black eye for his trouble.

"House is hurting, let me down!" Jimmy demanded tearfully. He had to get back to House. They never should have taken him away from him.

Foreman grunted as a small heel smacked into his shin. The large doctor wrestled his charge forward and held him tight pinning his arms at his side, "James Wilson, that's enough!"

The little boy froze and whimpered the fight leaving his body. Foreman merely readjusted the child into his lap without another word.

Behind the mask, House's features took on a shocked look at Foreman's rough treatment of his friend, looking very much like he was about to come to his little friends rescue Cuddy sighed and put a hand on his shoulder, "It's ok Greg, James was being naughty he is lucky not to have ended up in the corner," She said as much for Wilson as she did for House, "But he is calm now, so you need to calm down too and finish your breathing treatment." She stroked his cheek gently, around the mask. Greg clamed himself but didn't look happy about it. He was fiercely protective of James, especially now that he was so small. As far as he was concerned he was the only one that got to mess with Wilson and he would take down anyone else who tried.

Sensing Greg was still displeased Cuddy looked from him to James "Jimmy knows he was acting out and is ok now," She assured Greg still looking at Wilson.

The little boy on the other bed nodded as silent tears started to stream down his cheeks. "Sorry," Jimmy whispered.

Feeling the tears start to splash onto his hand, Foreman's heart sank. "Hey kiddo, it's ok," he soothed while rubbing the child's back.

Cuddy sighed. She feared that everyone who had anything to do with James Wilson would never be able to stand their ground. He was such a cutey.

The small boy snuggled into Foreman's arms while Cuddy stood having checked on house to make sure that his breathing had eased and he was more comfortable. She placed a reassuring hand on the boys back. Leaning forward she breathed into the child's ear, "You know why Foreman had to grab you so harshly though don't you James?" She received a small nod that rubbed against Foreman's chest who was now looking a little guilt stricken. He really hadn't meant to upset the boy, but he hadn't wanted a broken nose either.

"Good," she murmured. "Now you've apologized to Foreman for hurting him, come and sit with Greg, he needs his friend to help him feel better."

James nodded his head before turning to slide from his secure lap and Cuddy gave Foreman an assuring nod and smile. In return the doctor relaxed a little before offering to fetch House's meds.

While all this was going on Gregory House's eyes widened. My god, they were turning into kids mind and body, especially his best friend who appeared more child-like than ever. Although he couldn't deny his own feeling of need to be re-assured and how good it felt when he felt so ill. He couldn't really remember that kind of caring when he was a kid the first time.

House watched as his friend clamber onto the bed beside him, he looked small, smaller than he had done before. His lashes were wet from crying and he clutched a small bear that had various limbs bandaged having been used to keep other children in the hospital entertained while they were resident here. As the boy snuggled up on the bed he popped a small thumb straight into his awaiting mouth and closed his eyes as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Gregory sighed only serving to make him cough a little more behind his steaming mask and causing Wilson's eyes to spring open again. "It's ok, Wilson," House wheezed. "It's not so bad."

James nodded and once again closed his eyes before automatically sucking on the comforting digit.

House could feel his eyes filling with tears. His friend was a kid… he was a kid and they had little hope of returning back to their normal selves!

Maybe it was post traumatic? Maybe he hadn't really thought about it before now? Whatever it was this overwhelming urge to have a hug from Cuddy right this moment was pushing aside any of, what had been his stronger urges to stay independent. He'd secretly dreaded the thought of transgressing any further in mental age, but his childish emotions seemed to battering his adult reassurances into remission and it looked like Wilson had certainly passed any place were his adult mind was controlling his emotions.

House startled a bit as a large dark hand came to remove the mask from his face as the breathing treatment came to an end and Eric hung the mask back on the wall before injecting several syringes full of medication into House's IV port. He then brought both breakfast trays over to the boys and let them settle in for a much needed meal.

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House watched Cuddy moving around the room, folding comforters, tidying away toys and arranging draws full of small clothes before removing pajamas with trucks and airplanes on them. He wanted her here, next to him, holding him, making him feel safe and dare he think it, loved. He was scared for the first time in his life that he could remember.

Thankfully for Cuddy and Foreman, both boys had had a peaceful night. Greg was actually looking like he had some color in his cheeks again and had even managed a little of breakfast. Wilson had followed suit eating a healthy amount for the first time in a long time.

As the day progressed, both children had been dressed so that they could feel a little more normal and get back to a routine. Deciding it was time she showered and Foreman got to have a little down time, Cuddy took advantage of Chase's arrival and asked if he'd watch the boys while she freshened up. He readily agreed and offered to check House over and deal with his meds while she was gone.

While the young doctor gently dealt with House, James watched his friend. He didn't feel like he was helping at all. He was a Doctor; surely there was something he could do to help out a fellow doctor who was still so obviously in pain?

Grasping his teddy bear tightly between his small fingers James carefully wiped his nose on his clean shirt sleeve before quietly leaving the room. He was careful not to scuff his sneakers on the shiny floor as he didn't want Chase following him. This was something Doctor James Wilson had to do all by himself…

When Cuddy returned House was back behind a small breathing mask having had all his medication administered by Chase.

"Is he ok?" She enquired, smiling at the little boy who was once again struggling to get his breath.

Chase nodded making eye contact with Gregory to re-assure him all was well. He was surprised when the child had panicked a little at the examination. He'd never seen worry in House's eyes like that before. He certainly seemed to be a different kid from the one who was kidnapped the week before.

Chase turned to Cuddy, "He got a little wheezy when I was carrying out the examination, I thought it was best to keep it under control before he got to upset about it."

Cuddy smiled, "Good, well he seems to be improving a little. Thanks for the break."

The young doctor smiled turning to survey the room. "Where's Wilson?" he enquired quietly.

Catching her breath and nearly falling from her newly adorned heels, Cuddy glanced at the table the little boy had been at when she left. "You were meant to be watching him, Chase."

The young doctor swallowed loudly, this couldn't happen again on his watch, surely? "I didn't even notice him", he admitted sheepishly.

Cuddy just stared at the young man. "Go and get Foreman and damn well find him," she hissed.

Chase hurried away, not knowing what to say. The only thing that could make his situation any better was finding Wilson!

Once Foreman had been roused from his brief sleep both Doctors set about searching the hospital as there was no way the little tike would have left again out without an adult not again anyway.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Against all odds, here is another chapter. I am stuck here so if you have any ideas or anything you would like to see please leave a comment.

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Redux chapter sixteen

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Wilson carefully took a chair and clambered onto it desperately trying to pry open the top drawer of the file cabinet in House's office. Getting it open he got onto his tip toes to peer inside. He'd already tried to write a prescription, but for some reason the lady in the pharmacy wasn't willing to accept it in his hand writing. She'd told him if he colored it in nicely, she might consider giving him a lollypop for his trouble. That certainly wasn't going to help his friend!

Still clinging onto the teddy, Wilson just about managed to reach down into the drawer to fish around. He knew exactly what he was looking for. House had been taking these pain meds for years. Carefully grasping the container of Vicodin, Wilson closed the drawer and slid from the chair and started to make his way back to his friend.

Very pleased with himself, Wilson made his way down the hall only to quite literally run into Chase colliding into the man's legs. He really needed to start paying attention to where he was going.

"Where in the world have you been!" Chase was relieved to see the little boy, but also unhappy that James had run off. He grabbed the little boy by the arm and marched him back down to the room James and Greg shared. It was then that Chase noticed what the little boy clutched in his hand, he reached down and took it from him, eyes going wide as he read the label, "James" The name was said as an admonishment.

James squirmed a little and hung his head, "I was helping House," he said in a small voice.

"This is not the way to help him, you are the last person I would think would want him taking this poison again, and you know better than to wander off." Chase sighed, putting the pill bottle down on the table he lead James over to the corner, "You stay here little boy and think about what you did that was wrong."

"But I don't wana stand in the corner," The little boy piped up, his voice dangerously close to a whine. He turned from the corner to look at Chase pleadingly.

"Then you shouldn't have wondered off, you scared us." Chase scolded turning the little boy to face the corner once more.

James whimpered and held the teddy close to his chest, feeling tears pool in his eyes. He hated standing in the corner, and Chase never punished them. He must have been real mad in order to do it. He didn't want Chase to be real mad at him. He sniffled and ran a hand across his face.

With Wilson settled in the corner Chase took out his phone and dialed Cuddy letting her know he had found the little boy and that they were back in their room. Hanging up, he nearly caved when he heard the little on start to sniffle, but then he remembered how he felt when he realized Wilson was missing, how bad it had felt that he had gone missing on his watch again, he remembered what it felt like to lose House for those few days the last time the kids had wondered off on their own and he firmed his resolve. Wilson was going to do the corner time he had earned.

The sound of clicking heals nearly running could be heard from down the hall as Cuddy quickly made her way to the room. She stopped when she saw her littlest standing unhappily in the corner, obviously crying.

She sighed, but left him where he was, knowing it was important not to undermine Chase, though she could strangle the young doctor for losing one of her kids again, she really thought the man would have learned his lesson about keeping an eye on both the boys. She would have a talk with him later.

Wilson gave a little squirm and pulled his teddy in tighter as tears rolled down his cheeks. He had only wanted to help house, but now he felt badly because Chase had scolded him about the vicodin. Thinking about it now it had been a very bad idea, the one good thing about this entire mess was that House wasn't on the drugs anymore. What had he been thinking… he had just wanted to help his friend so badly. He whimpered and hid his face in the teddy.

Chase looked at his watch and sighed, fifteen minutes had passed, he knew James deserved the time out, but he was still just a little boy and as much as Chase thought he might deserve more time for giving them such a scare, let alone bringing Vicodin for House, he simply couldn't bring himself to leave the child in the corner for a minute more.

"James, come here" He called and Jimmy turned from the corner to look at Chase with tear filled eyes his cheeks covered in their wet trails. He slowly made his way over to the young doctor his head down.

Chase took Jimmy's hand and walked over to where the chairs were he sat down and pulled the child to stand in front of him, he was very glad that House had fallen asleep and stayed asleep through all of this. He took both of the boy's tiny hands in his and looked at the child, "You know why you just had a time out?" He asked.

Jimmy nodded his head and sniffled again.

"Can you tell me why?" Chase probed.

"Cuz I went off on my own and getted vicodin for House." James said in a small voice.

"And why was that naughty?" Chase continued.

Wilson whimpered and peered up at the man through his lashes, "I'm not posta go off on my own and House not posta have those drugs, I shouldn't have gotten them."

Chase nodded, dropping the little hands he pulled the little boy into a hug, he just looked so sad Chase just couldn't help himself, he had to comfort him.

Cuddy walked over and placed a hand on the little boy's head, "Don't wonder off again, James, ok?"

"Kay, I'm sorry." James said laying his head on Chase's chest soaking up the offered comfort.

Chase rubbed his back, he really felt badly that James had managed to wonder off on his watch, again.

Lisa gave them a moment before piping up, "Chase why don't you take James to go get lunch?"

Chase nodded, "We'll bring back something for you and Greg."

"Thank you," She said going over to check the sleeping boy out as Chase lead Jimmy out of the room by the hand. Maybe she would get a few minutes of peace and quiet.

OoOoOoOo

Please review, it really does mean so much to me and helps me want to write more.


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